By
Rebecca Gibson |
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Asia and Malaysia Cruise Industry Association (MCIA) have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly drive cruise education and awareness in Malaysia.
CLIA Asia will provide essential training, resources and support to MCIA’s travel agent members.
“Globally, we see that cruise markets with the highest market penetration have the most ‘cruise educated’ travel agents,” said Joel Katz, managing director of CLIA Australasia and Asia. “Partnering with MCIA provides us with a great opportunity to equip its members with further skills to promote and sell cruise holidays to consumers.”
MCIA hopes that the collaboration with CLIA Asia will help to raise the profile of cruise tourism in Malaysia. According to CLIA’s Asia Cruise Trends 2018 report, the number of Malaysians taking cruises grew by 88% in 2017, but cruise penetration rate is still less than 0.6%.
“Cruise has seen tremendous growth and interest in Malaysia, and our members are keen to market and sell more cruise holidays,” said Dato Rashid Khan, MCIA’s president. “MCIA is fully committed to enhance, develop and support the cruise industry and we look forward to working with CLIA to bring cruise tourism in Malaysia to greater heights.”