Adfinity media partners with China's Mafengwo to attract more Chinese tourists

Exclusive report by Joan Santani

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6  -- Malaysia’s Adfinity Media Sdn Bhd is collaborating with China’s leading travel and leisure information platform Mafengwo to boost tourism promotion to Malaysia.

Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board deputy director of international promotion division (Asia/Africa) Chan Hon Mun said this helps spur Malaysia's target of achieving 3.2 million tourist arrivals from China this year and 3.48 million during the Visit Malaysia Year next year.

“We don't have a very big target, considering the economic situation, as well China’s and Malaysia’s policies,” he told reporters after the launch of the board’s latest localisation strategy conference dubbed “2020 Mafengwo Go Around Malaysia" here today.

The event also marked the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Mafengwo and Adfinity Media, which will serve as the only local advertising platform for Malaysian businesses that are keen to advertise on Mafengwo's portal/app.

Chan said the number of Chinese tourist arrivals jumped 29 per cent year-on-year to 2.94 million in 2018, contributing RM12.3 billion to the national economy.

Expecting a surge in Chinese tourists, Tourism Malaysia encourages local travel agents and tour operators to embrace smart tourism to promote Malaysia in China by working together with online travel agencies like Mafengwo.

Mafengwo provides a platform, a digital ecosystem for Malaysian partners to reach out to the 1.4 billion Chinese population, utilising precision marketing methods such as digital content production and promotion. 

In her welcoming speech, Mafengwo senior vice-president Yu Zhuo said Mafengwo looks forward to assist Malaysian tourism industry players by creating online content resources for Chinese travellers, thus building a localised marketing ecology in Malaysia.

Mafengwo director of international partnership Mona Liu was present.

In conjunction with the MoU signing ceremony, Mafengwo selected seven local merchants, comprising restaurants, tourist attractions and accommodation providers as Mafengwo's Users Top Pick.

The National Mosque (Masjid Negara) here was named as one of Mafengwo's tourism icon winners by virtue of receiving high ratings from Mafengwo's app users.

Speaking to Bernama on the sidelines of the conference, Masjid Negara assistant information officer Ahmad Faisal Azman said Chinese tourists, including repeat travellers, accounted for half of the 240,000 tourists from 124 countries who visited the National Mosque last year.

Mafengwo provides mainland Chinese travellers with one-stop travel solutions ranging from guides to reservation.

Focussing on travel guides and the utilisation of Big Data on vast user-generated contents, Mafengwo offers all-dimensional travel information and product reservation services, including transportation, hotel, sports, catering, shopping and leisure, covering over 60,000 destination destinations around the world.

-- BERNAMA