Mumbai : The first batch of Malaysia Master Programme, launched by Tourism Malaysia in association with TravelBiz Monitor and Galileo received certification at Kuoni Academy of Travel in Mumbai on March 5.

month-long classroom training on Malaysia at Kuoni Academy Centres in various cities of India. After receiving an overwhelming response for the first batch, Tourism Malaysia is planning to open registration for second batch by July 2010.

Dato' Mirza Mohammad Taiyalo Beg, Director General, Malaysia Tourism who presented the certificates said, "Indian travellers are evolving and are loaded with information about a destination. We want travel trade to become Malaysia specialists to help the travellers in deciding where to go in Malaysia based on their preferences and requirements. Malaysia Master programme will act as an edge for Malaysia to enhance travel trade's knowledge on the destination and sell lesser known destinations."

Voicing a similar opinion, P Manoharan, Director - India, Tourism Malaysia said, "We were overwhelmed with the number of registrations (over 1500) we had for the first batch. We want to have more Malaysia specialists in India as it is one of our major source markets. We are going to open registrations for second batch somewhere in July this year. We will be conducting this programme every six months and agents who participated in first batch can also register for the second as it will have different products and destinations. To further enhance the destination knowledge, we are going to take the 200 Malaysia specialists on a FAM." The FAM for all 200 Malaysia specialists will be conducted in batches and will be completed by year end.