On 26 April 2019, H.E. Ambassador Raja Dato’ Reza Raja Zaib Shah opened the Malaysia Destination Seminar held in Kyiv, Ukraine. The seminar was organised by Tourism Malaysia office based in Istanbul which is responsible for the Ukrainian market, in collaboration with Turkish Airlines and Ukraine’s Travel Professional Group (TPG). In addition to the capital city, the same seminar was conducted in two other major cities namely Odessa and Kharkiv.
In total, 172 local travel agents participated in the seminar which aimed to promote Malaysia as one of the top holiday destinations in Ukraine and consequently attract more tourists from Ukraine to Malaysia. The travel agents were appreciative of the Malaysian side’s efforts in organising the seminar and provided feedback that they have gained valuable information about Malaysia and what Malaysia can offer to their clients.
Malaysia received 25,832,354 international tourists in 2018, a decrease of 0.4% compared to 2017. Nevertheless, the arrival from Ukraine in 2018 increased 11% compared to 2017 from 13,068 to 14,529 tourists, marking the seventh consecutive year that the number of tourist arrivals from Ukraine has been growing.
