“SMART-I” EXPANDS PRESENCE IN WEST ASIA TOURIST MARKET

After a successful international launch of its Smart-i tourist mobile app in Mumbai, India earlier this year, Smart Malaysia Tourist Apps (M) Sdn Bhd (Smart Malaysia) today made another landmark announcement; the launch of its Arabic language option, dedicated to the burgeoning West Asia tourist influx to Malaysia.

In a brief launch during the grand launch of the Malaysia Tourism Pavilion at the Arabian Travel Mart 2015 (ATM), Mr Salleh Huddin Abu Hanifah, Chairman of Smart Malaysia said “Our aim as a smart traveling companion for travelers, is to provide legendary service and stay relevant to our subscribers wherever and whenever they use Smart-i.”

The travel industry according to the World Tourism Council latest annual research shows Travel & Tourism’s contribution to world GDP grew for the fifth consecutive year in 2014, rising to a total of 9.8% of world GDP (US$7.6 trillion).

Hence, Smart Malaysia launch of its Arabic language option is primarily aimed to further ease the travelling/holiday preparations and planning of the West Asian tourists to Malaysia. This, in turn reinforces the importance of the West Asia tourists market to country as Malaysia witnessed a surge in West Asia tourist arrivals over the last few years. Last year, arrivals from West Asia were recorded at 353, 955 and the top three markets Saudi Arabia (113,921), Iran (72,264) and Oman (34,534).

The initiative by Smart-i to include the Arabic language option in the mobile app is also an important step, as Malaysia has recently topped the list of all OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) destinations, but also ranked first among 100 destinations, based on the report by the MasterCard- Cresent Rating Global Muslim Travel Index for 2015 (GMTI).

According to the index, a total of 5.9 million Muslim visitors visited Malaysia in 2014, up from 5.7 million in 2013.

“Smart-i is the new mobile app platform designed to make it easier for travelers around the world to plan their holidays or business trip to Malaysia online ethically and efficiently.It free-to-use, and will connect millions of consumers, whilst offering a comprehensive travel and lifestyle deals in Malaysia and businesses a slice of the estimated $145 billion* Muslim travel market” said the Honorable Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri Tan Sri Abdul Aziz who officiated the said launch.

The free Smart-i mobile app offers locals and visitors alike tips for orientating themselves in Malaysia’s many diverse tourist spots, together with tips for discovering new aspects of Malaysia. It is also the first-its-kind tourism mobile app that provides subscribers with stories of Myths and Legends about various tourist spots in Malaysia.

“Smart-i is already amongst the world’s most upcoming travel mobile app, Its downloads has increased from just 20,000 in February this year to 182,477 downloads today on the phone and tablet worldwide. It is anticipated that after the launch today, by end May, it will go up to more than 200,000” said Mr Salleh Huddin.

For businesses, Smart-i serves as important tool to help them to be more visible to a much wider market, capitalizing on Smart-i subscribers base which targets foreign visitors to the country as well connect with their own customers.

Throughout ATM 2015, Smart-i aims to assist Tourism Malaysia to boost tourist arrivals from the West Asia by providing an excellent platform to promote Malaysia as a key tourist destination.  Dato’ Seri  Mohamed Nazri  said, “SMART-I is a representation of how we can simplify our visitors’ lives during their stay in  Malaysia and create new and much easier ways to have a more enjoyable and fuss-free holiday. In an increasingly mobile-driven environment, SMART-I enables them to get pertinent information about Malaysia and the great hot shopping offers at their fingertips.”

ATM also gives the Smart-i team to network, meet and discuss business opportunities with foreign counterparts which is hope will definitely help generate more awareness about Malaysia and its MyFest 2015 promotions.

What sets Smart-i mobile app apart from any tourist moble application currently in the market is, the Smart-I mobile app provides special deals for subscribers for hotels, food and beverages, shopping malls and even homestays, it also shares stories of myths and legends of various tourist spots featured on the app.

About Smart Malaysia Tourist Travel App Sdn Bhd

Smart Malaysia Tourist App Sdn Bhd (Smart Malaysia) is a Malaysia homegrown agency specialising in developing mobile app for iOS and Android. The team consists of dynamic individual with a diverse wealth of experience, who share a passion for all things mobile. We relish a technical challenge.  Smart Malaysia provides forward-looking tourists with the ability to drive compliance, saving time and complete with great deals offerings in their travel programs, while meeting the needs and requirements of the modern world.