Tourism M'sia wins award for best deals

Tourism M'sia wins award for best deals

By FOO YEE PING

NEW YORK: Tourism Malaysia, spurred by its victory at a major travel award competition, is switching into high gear to woo more travellers from North America.

Its Los Angeles office was awarded recently the "Most Outstanding Achievement in Marketing of Travel Deals for a Destination" by Travelzoo, an Internet travel site which has 11 million subscribers.

"This is the first time we got such an award by Travelzoo. It is a significant reflection of our Malaysian brand because Travelzoo is a high-powered Internet tool on travel," said Mohamed Amin Yahya, vice-president of Tourism Malaysia (Western USA/Latin America).

Tourism Malaysia beat four contenders for the award - Bermuda Department of Tourism, City of Indian Wells, Maison de la France and the Santa Rosa Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The 2007 Travelzoo Awards were held last month in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

Also known as the Tzoos, the awards are given out to companies that offer the best travel deals of the year.

Winners were picked by a committee of judges from about 600 travel company entries.

According to Travelzoo, the winners were chosen based on the competitiveness of the deals offered, reliability, consistency, appeal and quality.

"(Where quality is concerned), the travel deals must be so good that we would recommend booking an offer with these companies to our family and friends," it said in a statement.