A special exhibition will be held to attract local tourism by Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel (MATTA) to mitigate the decline of Chinese tourists due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

President Datuk Tan Kok Liang said the event, MATTA Fair Cuti Cuti Malaysia, will be held on April 4 to 5 this year at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.The inaugural exhibition will be jointly supported by Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines Bhd.

Tan said MATTA will give 40% of discounts from its current booth rate which priced about RM4,000 to over 200 booths in the two days event.

He said “In view of the current consumer sentiment, it is now the best time to hold a new MATTA Fair, exclusively for domestic tourism that facilitates Malaysian holidaymakers to enjoy the many attractions and safe havens within the country. It is also for service providers to switch focus from inbound market to domestic,”

Tan also confirmed more than 95,000 of hotel room bookings have been cancelled mostly from Chinese tourists since the outbreak. This amounted to almost RM40 million of losses.

MATTA estimates to attract about RM20 million to RM30 milllion of business transactions, to cover some of the potential losses that had affected the hoteliers, travel agents and airliners since January this year.