MATTA Fair 2016

The MATTA Fair 2016 will take place from the 11 to 13 March and this year around, travel deals and packages are increasingly popular with locals and also foreigners. Over the years, the popular travel fair in Malaysia has made a huge impact with travelers due to the amazing bargains and deals offered throughout the three day fair held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur. It is also known as the best time to look for Matta Fair promotion packages and deals.

This year will also see the main Matta Fair 2016 happen twice a year, once in March and the other in September. Apart from the main travel fair, selected states in Malaysia will also be hosting their own smaller scale Matta Fairs which is held throughout the year too.

Customers at one of the leading travel agents booth during the Matta fair

While conventional Free Independent Travelers or FITs usually wait for the travel bargains, other players have also joined in the bandwagon in the last couple of years taking advantage of the popularity of these fairs. There is also the MITM Travel Fair 2016, AirAsia Travel Fair 2016 and Malaysia Airlines Travel Fair 2016 which cater to massive savings and deals as well. In total, there are four main travel fairs in Malaysia for consumers.

With that, consumers now have many options to travel, so if you miss one fair, there will always be another. But again, the mother of all travel fairs is still the Matta Fair where over 1000 booths are occupied by travel agents, companies, airlines, tourism boards and over a hundred thousand people visit the fair, meaning the vendors can give much better discounts and promotions due to the mass volume of consumers.

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Visitors to the Japan National Tourism Board’s booth at the Matta Fair

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The large crowd at the Tourism Malaysia booths during the Matta Fair

The Matta Fair 2016 will also see more participation from local and foreign tourism boards going all out to promote their state or country. Tourism Malaysia always makes the biggest headline with am extremely huge area in the domestic hall with over 100 booths offering local domestic travel packages. In 2015, Tourism Malaysia launched ‘Dekat Je’, a travel campaign targeting Malaysians and also foreigners to travel around Malaysia. This was also in line with the fall of the Malaysian Ringgit in July where traveling to the UK or USA was not cost effective for many people.

The last Matta Fair 2015 also saw over 100,000 visitors attending the three day event here in Kuala Lumpur and for this year, the target will still remain around the same numbers until more information is provided. As for popular destinations, Japan, Korea and Asia remain strong with the local consumers.

While many consumers would wait for the fair before deciding on their holidays, it is also highly recommended that you check and double check the packages before buying them. Due to the cheap airfares being offered by many local and international airlines, quite a number of travel packages are being sold as ‘Ground Only’ which means no air tickets in the package, just hotel accommodation, breakfast and probably transfers from airport to hotel.

Muslim Packages being sold at the Matta Fair

Matta Fair Muslim Packages

Muslim travel packages are one of the very hot products with many local travel agents offering various Muslim Travel Packages to all parts of the world. Even the big travel agents see this as a growing lucrative business where they have created special divisions just for this. When you explore the international hall, you will see this easily.

Another highlight last year was also the Umrah Package aection which was hosted at Hall 1M above the international hall. Here, specialized travel agents selling Umrah Travel Packages were put together for those wanting to perform the Haj in Mecca.

Matta Fair International Tourism Boards

The international tourism boards are also one of the main highlights as popular destinations like Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia are always offering amazing information about their respective countries. At times, special artist or movie stars are bought in to enhance the presence at the fair. At the last fair, the Korea Tourism Board brought in one of the most popular TV stars, The Running Man’s Kang Gary at the Matta Fair September 2015.

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Malaysia Airlines air tickets being sold at the travel fair

In general, consumers should do a little bit of homework before heading to the fair to buy packages as travel is cheap nowadays but you need to know the pros and cons of the travel packages being offered. It is recommended that you ask all your questions before committing. And it is also highly recommended you visit the fair either early when it opens or after dinner as it can get really crowded during peak hours and on the weekend.

MATTA Fair Photos

Below are random photos taken during the last Matta Fair in September, just to give you an idea of how the travel fair looks like together with basic captions included. Click on the photos to see a larger image.

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The main entrance for the Matta Fair 2015

Tourism Malaysia’s official mascot, the Proboscis Monkey and the Dekat Je Campaign

Sabah Tourism Board’s impressive booth and characters

Sarawak Tourism Board was equally impressive with their gimmick

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Legoland had brought their latest show to the fair

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A general view of the International Hall during the fair

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Malaysian Island Packages being sold at a deal

This was on the 1st day, so the crowd was still mild

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Macau Tourism, a regular at the fair

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The most creative booth goes to Korea Tourism with their double deck booth

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Japan National Tourism Board’s booth at the fair, very popular area

Various mascots are seen all over the fair

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Sabah Tourism Booth, a popular place for locals and foreigners

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Taiwan Tourism, always a hit at the Matta Fair

One of the leading local Malaysian tour companies goes Pink for the fair

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A couple of tour agents wearing the ‘Standing Strong’ t-shirts from Sabah during the opening

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Turkish girls in traditional costume at the Turkey Tourism booth

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Malaysian Theme Parks were all out to capture the year end crowd

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Various Sabah climbing packages to the mountains

Staff from the Sarawak Tourism Board awaiting visitors

Sri Lanka Tourism had an official launch during the 1st day of the Matta Fair 2015

Interesting theme park characters brought to the travel fair to impress the crowds

Matta Fair 2016
Date: 11.13 March
Venue: PWTC, KL
Time: 10am to 9pm

Another piece of great news is that the Sunway Putra Mall which opened in May 2015 after undergoing a major renovation which took almost one full year. This is one of the places where consumers and event vendors go for their food hunt or coffee fix as they have some great outlets there and also a fantastic food street on the top floor. So, you now have the luxury of doing two-in-one while you attend the fair.

For anyone wanting some great deals on travel packages locally and abroad, you can save up and head to PWTC in Kuala Lumpur for the March MATTA Fair 2016 and remember to double check before buying anything.

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