Tarikh : 13 November 2022 (Ahad)
Masa : 9.00 pagi
Tempat : Bilik Mesyuarat Aras 5, Bahagian Pelancongan
KATA ALUAN
Thank you emcee.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakatuh dan Salam Sejahtera.
Salutasi
1. Yang Berbahagia, Prof. Dr. Haim Hilman Abdullah.
Vice Chancellor, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM);
2. Yang Berusaha, Prof. Madya Dr. Kamal Izzuwan Ramli,
Dekan School of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management;
3. Yang Berusaha, Professor Dr. Azilah Kassim,
Director of Langkawi International Tourism and Hospitality (LITH) Research Centre;
4. All the plenary and keynote speakers and participants of Langkawi Tourism and Hospitality International Conference;
5. Distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen.
Pengenalan
1. First and foremost, I would like to thank the organizing committee for inviting me to officiate the opening of the “Langkawi Tourism and Hospitality International Conference 2022”. Even though it been done online, I am delighted to be part of this highly anticipated event which gathers academic research and publication activities. I have been informed that this online conference gathers 20 presenter which will present 32 papers with different topic. Even though this is the 2nd online conference, we hope that this event can be done physically next year and done in this beautiful island, Langkawi.
2. I would like to congratulate Faculty of Tourism Management, Hospitality and Event, University Utara Malaysia (UUM) for organizing this conference with the theme of ‘Engaging Tourism and Hospitality in the Post Covid 19 Era”. This academic conference should be encouraged so the paper that been presented can be source for everyone to refer. I heard that there is a topic of latest developments in the tourism sector. We hope that a lot of research and idea about tourism that can be proposed in managing post Covid 19.
3. The world’s tourism industry received a great blow when the COVID-19 hit in 2020. Tourist arrivals in Langkawi decline by 46% compared to the previous year with only 1.8 million tourists. The situation worsened when the government implemented a movement control to control the spread of this pandemic until June 2021.
4. On 31 December 2021, Langkawi recorded a total of 1.09 million tourist with a tourism income of RM1.22 billion. The influx of tourist to Langkawi increased in last four (4) months when the state border was open for tourism purposes on 16 September 2021 under the Langkawi Domestic Tourism Bubble initiative introduced by the Government and followed by the Langkawi International Tourism Bubble. Alhamdullialh, for the successful implementation of this initiative LADA has won the Special Award on Travel Bubble Initiative (by Malaysia Tourism Council) on 9 December 2021.
5. In 2022, LADA will intensify tourism promotion activities by launching two (2) tagline “Langkawi Best Wey” for the domestic market which was launch on 3 September 2022. While for the international Market the tagline is “99 Magical Islands in the sun” on 7 December at World Travel Mart London.
6. Until 31 Oktober 2022, Langkawi received 228,125 tourists compared to the target set for this month of 210,00. This make the number of tourist arrival to Langkawi until Oktober is 2.1 million.
7. Other than that, LADA also was awarded with the Nation’s Pride Tourism and Destination Branding Award at The Brand Laureate Best Brands Awards 2022, the first-ever destination to receive this Honorable Award. This award recognized our efforts in promoting Langkawi especially during the post-pandemic where the success of this pilot project for International Travel Bubble Initiatives by the government. As the pioneering agency in Langkawi’s tourism development, LADA has been playing a major role in establishing Langkawi into the renowned world-class tourism destination that it is today.
8. We hope that we can achieve our target to have 2.5 million visitors by end of this year. I take this opportunity to inaugurate “Langkawi Tourism and Hospitality International Conference 2022”. I hope this conference will achieve its objective.
Thank you.