From July 25 to 26, the Maritime Silk Road Tourism Belt promotion delegation organized by CNTA launched a two-day sales campaign for Chinese tourism products at the Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. The sales campaign spanned a weekend and lasted for eight hours per day, attracting a huge crowd with the introduction of tourist destinations in China, the sale of Chinese tourism products, four Fujian folk performances and interactive shows given by folk artists.

A highlight of the campaign was the combination of on-site sales and tourist destination information services. Outside the periphery of the sales site were over 20 local travel agents specialized in travel in China and inside it were tourism departments and travel agents from nine Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities so that visitors can inquire them about product details or make purchases conveniently. As Malaysian Chinese Tourism Association (MCTA) National President Dato Albert Tan Sam Soon remarked, it brought closer publicity, promotion and product sale and was as direct and efficient as online marketing. What’s more important, “face-to-face” marketing was a better way of communication and confidence building and could not be replaced by online marketing.


A special exhibition booth was erected at the sales site, featuring the local travel magazine CUTI-CUTI. The special issue in Malaysian on maritime Silk Road travel in China jointly published by CNTA's Singapore Office and CUTI-CUTI was particularly eye-catching with its cover featuring fishermen in Guilin. It’s known that 30,000 copies of the special issue were printed and on sale at about RMB16 each, except for some free copies.

Another highlight was the “Beautiful China in Your Eyes” photography contest. The winners were announced on the evening of July 24 at the Maritime Silk Road Tourism Belt promotional event. The three-month contest attracted over 1,000 entries and 30 were selected by the expert panel as winners of the amateur group and six winners of the professional group. At the awarding ceremony, the winners were awarded free travel in China or free round-trip flight tickets to China. The head of CNTA's Singapore Office said, “It’s a major step we take to localize tourism publicity and promotion in Southeast Asia. Showing the beauty of China through the lens of local residents to tell Chinese stories will be more appealing to locals and arouse their curiosity about China and interest in visiting China.”