The opening ceremony of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Fair 2025 was held yesterday (19 April), with Macao in the spotlight for being this edition’s “International Favourite Destination” and because Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) also received an award in the category of “Best National Tourism Organisation (NTO) Booth” for its creativity and innovation.

Connect directly with visitors and operators at main travel fair

MGTO set up a booth for the first time since the pandemic at MATTA Fair 2025, running since 18 until 20 April in Kuala Lumpur. Taking advantage of the platform provided by the largest tourism fair for consumers in the country to directly connect with travelers and travel trade, Macao’s diverse “tourism +” offerings are being showcased, featuring the city as an ideal short-haul destination for Malaysians, as part of the efforts to consolidate the Southeast Asian visitor source markets.

Under the theme “Experience Macao”, MGTO booth highlights the city’s main attractions, including the east-meets-west cultural heritage, integrated resorts, calendar of events and festivals, gastronomy, and more. It is also staging arts and crafts workshops themed around the city’s fireworks exhibitions and lion dance cultural heritage.

In cooperation with the Macau Leisure Tourism Services Innovation Association and Air Macau, destination attractions and special travel tips are being presented as another highlight of the booth, along with games with travel prizes and souvenirs also being conducted on both the Macao booth and the main stage of the fair. Around ten Malaysian travel agencies are meanwhile offering in the fair highlight products and special packages to Macao.

As MATTA Fair “International Favourite Destination”, Macao is also being spotlighted by the organizer on all the fair’s promotional and related materials, advertisements in multiple formats at the event venue, opening ceremony, along with destination promotion programs during the tourism exhibition, gathering this year 340 exhibiting entities with more than 1,750 booths.

In addition, MGTO joined a travel trade network event, “MATTA Connect”, ahead of the fair opening on 17 April to enhance exchange and cooperation opportunities with Malaysian and international industry operators. A presentation about Macao tourism was conducted at the event to introduce the latest destination developments, including the efforts to cater for Muslim travelers with initiatives such as MGTO newly released Macao for Muslim Travelers – Halal Travel Guide that is also being distributed at the fair. Over 300 tourism industry representatives from Malaysia and other around 30 destinations joined the network event. 

Promotions in Malaysia this year set off to a good start

Macao promoted at MATTA Fair as “International Favourite Destination” sets off to a good start this year’s MGTO’s initiatives targeting Malaysia, one of the city’s top ten visitor source markets.

Lined up for this year, aside from joining other major international travel trade fairs in Malaysia, MGTO will conduct its annual mega roadshow to meet consumers and operators in Kuala Lumpur, while continuing to cooperate with travel agents and airlines for special offerings of Macao travel packages and air tickets, as well as organizing joint familiarization visits to the city for travel agents, media, and key opinion leaders, along with tourism promotion in collaboration with Malaysian celebrities.

Next week, in cooperation with MATTA, MGTO will welcome the visit of a delegation from Malaysia with more than ten operators to attend the 13th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo from 25 to 27 April, among other activities, to continue to boost visitor arrivals from the country, as part of the efforts to solidify the Southeast Asia market and attract more international visitors to Macao.