Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: The Malaysia Golf Tourism Association (MGTA) has taken another major step in its five-year strategy to increase the number of visitors travelling to the country for the primary purpose of playing golf with the launch of its new Play Malaysia Golf logo and website.

Unveiling the latest initiative, MGTA Chairman Eushen Ng said the concept behind the new logo and the www.playmalaysiagolf.com website was simple and straightforward. “We wanted to get a message out to our key markets that makes it clear just how seriously good the golf courses are here throughout Malaysia,” he said.
“There are hundreds of thousands of golfers with easy access to Malaysia who really love their golf and play as often as they can. Playing on great golf courses in a range of different environments is what they like to do when they travel and this is exactly what Malaysia offers. I don’t think there is another golf destination that provides such a wide range of golfing challenges of the highest quality. So we are inviting avid golfers to come and really ‘Play Malaysia’…”
The new website, which went live this month, presents golf travellers with options of playing in the cities, playing on tropical islands and playing in Malaysia’s forested Highlands.
“Rather than just give the golfer a list of golf courses for them to plough through online, what we do on the website is to ask first of all what sort of golf experience they are looking for,” Ng said. “All members of the MGTA are committed to delivering the best possible golf experience to the visiting golf traveller, and this is where we think that Malaysia can really excel.”
The Play Malaysia Golf campaign aims to attract first-time golf visitors to the country by letting well-known professional golfers and celebrities do the talking. Malaysia regularly hosts four international Tour events every year and many of the world’s leading golfers frequently visit the country.
Ng said: “In recent months we have been asking the Tour players what they think of Malaysia as a country and they have some great insights into Malaysia’s strengths as a golf destination that we want to share with golfers.”
In the 2014 annual golf tourism survey recently published by global golf tourism industry organisation IAGTO, golf tour operators ranked Malaysia as the second most important golf destination for them in Asia after Thailand, rising two places in the global rankings since last year.