LANGKAWI, 2 June 2022: Malaysia’s top holiday island, Langkawi could attract around 2.5 million visitors this year, according to a Langkawi Development Authority forecast.
As reported by the New Straits Times, the LADA chief executive officer Nasaruddin Abdul Muttalib said he was making the estimate based on data showing 890,000 tourists visited the island during the five months ending 27 May.
“This is in line with the positive recovery of the tourism sector following the rise in tourist arrivals since the country reopened international borders on 1 April.
He made the comments during the opening of the Langkawi Geopark Carnival 2022 earlier this week. This year, Langkawi will place a strong emphasis on promoting cultural and sports events in the hope that it will boost arrivals to reach 2.5 million by year-end. Promotions will move up a gear in the domestic market mainly through social media channels to build awareness followed by campaigns to reach out to the travel trade worldwide and also introduce a strategy to provide airlines with incentives to start new routes to Langkawi from Europe during the last quarter of the year.
The island attracted 3.9 million international visitors in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic brought lockdowns and strict travel restrictions in 2020.
Core promotions focus on the travel trade, where support from tour operators could speed up tourism recovery for the island’s tourism industry.
“We will be having promotional campaigns in Vietnam, followed by the World Travel Market in the UK and travel shows in China, Singapore and Thailand,” the LADA chief explained.
