Penang: Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) has appointed Alfa Destination Marketing Private Limited as its representation firm in India to manage travel trade strategy, public relations and industry alignment across both countries.

India is proven to be a strong market for Penang and is one of the top five markets for Business Events in Penang. Over the past year, Penang has received encouraging interest from event planners and conference organisers. In 2017, 13 per cent of Business Events of Asia Pacific origin was from India, contributing RM190 million or $46 million. In 2018, Penang’s largest Business Event – V-CON 2018 – which saw a participation of 16,000 delegates from around the world reported that 80 per cent of their delegates were from India. The number of Indian travellers flying in to Penang has also increased in recent years. The Penang Immigration Department reported that for the period between Jan to Nov 2018, 7,250 Indian travellers flew into the Penang International Airport, compared to 6,569 in the same period in 2017. The 10.37 per cent increase came despite there not being direct flights between Penang and India.

To further attract the Indian outbound meetings and conference market, PCEB has introduced attractive support packages specially tailored for India.

PCEB recently held the second sales and media mission in India with partners from the Penang meeting with over 1000 travel trade contacts and media across 4 cities; Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi.

“We are so pleased and excited to add Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau to our existing client portfolio. Alfa’s focus will be to align and enhance the ‘Experiences Unfiltered’ campaign under PCEB through cooperative strategies with key wholesale, airline and trade partners, as well as increase awareness with key media stakeholders in India. Ultimately, this will increase the length of stay and contribute to grow the number of Indian visitors to Penang,” commented Kapil Pant, Director, Alfa Destinations Marketing .

With an estimated RM685 million in development revenue in 2018 and more than 700 hotel rooms in the pipeline, there are many new ways for Indian families to experience the state.

“We are proud to appoint Alfa Representatives in continuing our marketing and promotional efforts in India and its subcontinent markets. With their expertise of over 23 years, we look forward to welcoming more businesses from this segment to Penang,” said Ashwin Gunasekeran, Chief Executive Officer for Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau.

Video assets for Penang can be found here

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