Daily express.com, 29 September, 2006
Kota Kinabalu: The Matta Travel Fair here attracted 5,000 visitors who snapped up flight tickets and holiday packages worth RM2mil.
Matta Sabah Chapter Chairman, David de La Harpe said the number of visitors and sales during the three-day event, which ended last Sunday, exceeded expectations.
"We expected about 4,000 visitors and RM1.2mil in sales," he said when contacted by Daily Express Thursday.
De la Harpe said most participants made lots of effort to promote local destinations in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2007.
The most popular international holiday destinations were Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan.
For the inbound tourism players, rafting tours to Padas and Kiulu rivers were the favourites.
There were a total of 47 booths comprising travel agents, hotels and resorts, national tourism organisations including Tourism Malaysia, Tourism Authority Thailand, Palawan Tourism Council and Sabah Tourism Board, tourism schools, vacation clubs and telecommunication companies.
"This is the first time that Matta conducted such a fair in Sabah and it was held concurrently with the MITF (Matta Travel Fair) in Kuala Lumpur," said de La Harpe.
