Malaysian government's announced that the domestic tourism sector can resume operations from 10 June, 2020, brought some cheer to the travel industry crippled by the coronavirus, which also led to the cancellation of the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign.

With the recovery movement control order (RMCO) almost all social, sports, religious and education activities are permitted to open in phases with standard operation procedures (SOPs) in place. Businesses are also allowed to return to normal operating hours. Malaysia will attempt to revive its tourism industry by focusing on domestic tourism as well as marketing the country as a safe holiday destination, says Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri. She said the scrapping of the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign would not hamper the ministry's efforts to promote the country as a viable place to visit post-Covid-19. "Even though the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign has been cancelled, efforts to promote the country as a safe destination for tourists will continue, and we want this to be proven through domestic tourism and all of us should play a part to boost the country's tourism industry. We need to position Malaysia as a safe tourist destination for future visitors, so they will choose to visit us after the situation has recovered and when the country is open to tourists from outside, " she told reporters yesterday.

Nancy said a survey conducted by Tourism Malaysia on post-movement control order (MCO) domestic travel found that 50.9% respondents believed that travelling within the country is safer after the MCO. About 84.2% also believed that Covid-19 has changed their attitude towards travelling and 71.3% chose Malaysia as their holiday destination compared to abroad. She further elaborates that among the ministry's recovery plan was to remodel its promotion and marketing activities and embark on a extensive internet marketing and public relations campaign, which would focus on restoring confidence of the people to travel again.

(Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/06/11/focus-on-domestic-tourism. Accessed on 5^th August 2020)

With the recovery movement control order (RMCO), the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia announced an immediate action plan to promote domestic tourism in Malaysia to help revitalise the tourism industry.

a)As the Marketing Director for the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board, appraise ONE (1) benefit positioning that is suitable for domestic tourism campaign. By referring to the suggested positioning, identify the advertising appeal(s) that you would used in your advertising campaign. Determine any THREE (3) execution techniques to present your advertising appeal(s).

b)Examine how the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia will be able to perform executional consistency throughout its advertising campaign if the Ministry would like to have their advertisements to be viewed by audiences on TV, magazines and billboards.