VirtualMalaysia.com 2.0 Social Travel Portal

Subang Jaya, 22 August 2013 – Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (CAT) today announced the official release of the new VirtualMalaysia.com with interactive and user-generated content to showcase Malaysia as a travel destination and Malaysia’s many attractions. The new VirtualMalaysia.com portal went live on 1 August 2013.

In a briefing to media and travel bloggers, CAT took the opportunity to demonstrate how the revitalised VirtualMalaysia.com can offer more interactive and up-to-date information to online visitors about Malaysia via transparent user reviews.

Rohizam Md Yusoff, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of VirtualMalaysia.com and CAT said, “In the past, VirtualMalaysia.com featured content solely produced by our internal writers. Now with the increasing popularity of web 2.0 whereby user-generated content and social media play an important role, we want the content of the new VirtualMalaysia.com site to be more social-media driven and to feature articles, photos, travel tips and information contributed by the travelling consumers themselves that can be shared on social media platforms.” This release is timely since we are heading towards VMY 2014. Everyone can contribute towards promoting Malaysia to the world.

Tuan Haji Hamzah Rahmat, President of Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) lauded the change in VirtualMalaysia.com by CAT as timely as more travel websites harness social-media energy and the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to improve traveller’s experience.

“Today’s travellers are quite a different breed,” said Tuan Haji Hamzah. “They are better informed as they do research of destinations before visiting. They are also more adventurous and would read up other travellers’ writings or blogs and visit more off-beat locales. The user-generated contents featured on new VirtualMalaysia.com will resonate better with these travellers as the reviews or write-ups come directly from travellers themselves.”

From Left to Right: Travel bloggers - Ruzaimy Sany; Normala Abd. Rahman; Mohd. Azrul Ruzali; Joanna Liao, Chief Marketing Officer of Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd; Dato’ Shamsul Falak B. Tan Sri Kadir, President of Kuala Lumpur Tourism Association; Rohizam Md Yusoff, Founder & CEO of VirtualMalaysia.com; Shaharuddin M Saaid, Executive Director of Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners; Tuan Haji Hamzah Rahmat, President of Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA); Leeanne Lee (Travel blogger).

VirtualMalaysia.com has come a long way. It was first developed in 1997 and launched by CAT in 1999. In 2006, it was recognized by Tourism Malaysia as the official e-tourism portal for Malaysia. The website was considered advanced then as it was the first multimedia travel portal in Malaysia with streaming videos and hosted 500,000 images covering virtually every travel destination in Malaysia. Today, many industry players still regard it as a strong brand. The healthy site traffic of more than 3,000 visitors per day is testament of VirtualMalaysia.com’s strong following.

Joanna Liao, Chief Marketing Officer of CAT, explained the concept behind the user-generated content, “Just like TripAdvisor, travellers get reviews from actual visitors or bloggers who have actually been to the destinations, be it a tourist attraction, hotel or good place to eat. We have seen online user-generated reviews getting more traffic as they are more believable. In addition, other users can also share or give comments on the content”.

“To summarize, we are now in the position to generate benefits for all parties involved in VirtualMalaysia.com - from content creators to content users. Even travel industry players and tourist attractions will benefit as these establishments that are reviewed can get stronger exposure and real-time feedback from the market,” said Rohizam.

“I am confident we are on the right track in bringing about these changes in VirtualMalaysia.com. We are hopeful that this new social travel portal can help direct more travellers to Malaysia especially with the upcoming Visit Malaysia Year 2014,” he ended.

In conjunction with the unveiling, CAT is also launching the Merdeka Deals campaign on 29 August 2013.  The campaign offering local destinations’ travel deals and hotel packages will be promoted on VirtualMalaysia.com and will run until 7 September 2013. More details will be available on VirtualMalaysia.com

SOTA Launches New Brand Identity

Online Travel Portal Undergoes Transformation to Connect to Growing Travel Market

Kuala Lumpur, 17 May 2012 – Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (CAT) today announced a new brand identity for its online travel portal, SOTA.travel in line with its objective of making travel packages worldwide more accessible to everyone online.

SOTA is now known as ‘Smart Online Travel Assistant’ and the new brand involves a change in the logo, a new look and feel for the travel portal as well as more consumer-targeted messaging. The new look is aimed at presenting SOTA as a more consumer-focused online travel portal, moving on from the initial focus of providing an online platform for the sellers in the travel industry to one that focuses on reaching the buyers in the travel market.Second from left: En Rohizam Md Yusoff with Joanna Liao promoting the rebranded SOTA.travel, an online travel portal with travel mascots.

“When we launched SOTA in 2009, it was an acronym for ‘Standard Online Tourism Architecture’. Our objective then was to attract more travel agents to bring their travel businesses online. Now that we have a solid participation from the travel industry, we want to move to the new phase of being able to strongly connect with the consumers in the growing travel market”, said Rohizam Md Yusoff, CEO of CAT.

As compared to other travel websites where there is only one travel seller or a single online travel agent, SOTA.travel brings together multiple travel suppliers onto one single online platform, thereby giving consumers access to a wider choice of travel providers and products.Rohizam also explained the concept behind the new name, logo and web portal for SOTA. In essence, the name ‘Smart Online Travel Assistant’ intends to reflect a stronger connection with travel buyers worldwide by offering to assist them with their online travel buying experience instead of merely showcasing travel deals on the portal.

“Our aspiration for the SOTA is that it will become synonymous with online travel and will be the go-to website for travellers worldwide searching for travel deals online. So when people think about online travel, they will think SOTA”, added Rohizam.

He also stressed that the web portal’s URL address is www.sota.travel, without the ‘.com’ that many people are so familiar with for website addresses.

The revamped travel portal, www.sota.travel comes with an improved look and feel to provide better navigation and a seamless user experience for the travel buyers. The portal also incorporates other value-add features such as smart tips for travellers, recommendations on travel bargains as well as country-based weather forecast and calendars for smarter travel planning.

The rebranding exercise for SOTA includes a media blitz between May to October via print and online media channels. A mid-year school holiday promotional travel campaign was also launched simultaneously during the announcement of the new brand. The campaign will run from 17th May 2012 to 31st May 2012 and feature attractive travel packages to destinations such as Bali, Phuket, Osaka and Australia.

Creative Advances Technology (CAT) Introduces myTOURS At ITB Asia 2008 – The Trade Show

Kuala Lumpur, 12 November 2008: Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (CAT) introduced its Malaysian Tourism Online Unified Reservation System (myTOURS), a consolidated tourism e-business platform that unites government agencies, various sectors of the travel industry, and consumers, at the prestigious International Travel Bureau Asia (ITB Asia) at Suntec, Singapore recently.

myTOURS was received very well by Singapore Outbound operators and CAT quickly signed up 20 outbound travel operators. Hotel chains such as Starwood, Raffles and Swissotel Group, Renaissance and Hyatt Hotels were very receptive of myTOURS. CAT had also approached several National Tourism Boards of the ASEAN region to initiate the VirtualASEAN.com.

ITB Asia 2008, organised by Messe Berlin, is a B2B trade show and convention for the travel industry and it is the primary event for the Asia Pacific travel industry. As Asia is one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing travel market places in the world, ITB Asia, with 651 exhibiting companies and organisations from 58 countries and territories worldwide, became the premier meeting place in the travel trade industry, and a forum for establishing new customer contacts and conducting business, guaranteeing high-quality customer contacts.

“We believe ITB Asia is an excellent platform to introduce myTOURS to outbound travel operators and we want myTOURS to be seen as a concentrated effort to promote the tourism industry in order to create maximum visibility for Malaysia in the globe. During this economic downturn, the B2B platform will help the travel and tourism industries remain resilient,” said Rohizam Md Yusoff, CEO of CAT.

In Malaysia, CAT had signed up 50 inbound travel operators, airline, hotels and travel suppliers on the myTOURS platform. With the success of myTOURS in Malaysia, CAT introduced myTOURS at ITB Asia to reach prominent outbound travel operators of Singapore and other countries to facilitate better trade relations with Malaysian inbound travel operators’ products and promotions. This is inline with CAT's commitment to the Standard Online Tourism Architecture (SOTA) initiative. The online platform includes components such as Hotels2Go and Flights2Go, and other travel-related technology that are integral to the entire supply chain of the tourism industry.

myTOURS was developed to benefit both travellers and travel service providers. CAT realised that the travel industry’s supply chain was fragmented and at the same time, the demand for online travel from consumers was huge, and growing.

“myTOURS was developed to improve online travel business. It is our hope to help travel operators and suppliers connect with each other whether they are inside or outside of Malaysia. The objective is to spur the travel industry to grow faster than ever. The industry can build, maintain and promote their e-commerce sites and at the same time develop a profitable online business,” said Rohizam.

For more information about myTOURS, please log on to www.mytours.com.my

Creative Advances Technology (CAT) 推介大马首个综合旅游电子商务平台--myTOURS

吉隆坡，2008年8月13日: Creative Advances Technology (CAT)推介大马旅游网上统一预订系统(myTOURS)。这是一项结合政府机构、旅游业各领域及消费者的综合旅游电子商务平台。这项网上平台包括Hotels2Go、Flights2Go及其他旅游相关科技和结合旅游业的供应连锁。

大马旅游部的官方电子旅游网站Virtual Malaysia.Com 的开发公司CAT预料能在myTOURS平台与300家旅游代理、航空公司、酒店及旅游供应商签署合作。

获得大马多媒体超级走廊发展基金的CAT通过开创myTOURS，成为大马多媒体超级走廊要开发国内电子商务基础设备的部分计划，这预料能激励并带领大马商业迈向电子经济。

Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC)首席执行员拿督Badlisham Ghazali 在表扬CAT的成功时表示，CAT与大马多媒体超级走廊携手合作提升本地资讯通讯科技领域，开创新方案来促进国内旅游业。

“我们大马多媒体超级走廊希望通过发展基金能提升发展潜能；我们将看到获得大马多媒体超级走廊地位的公司的创新出现显著成长。我们的最终目标是开创世界级资讯通讯科技公司，为全世界提供解决方案及内容。”Badlisham说。

Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd首席执行员Rohizam Md Yusoff表示，旅游业的供应连锁零散，而消费者对网上旅游的需求却非常庞大，并不断成长中，这一切促成了myTOURS的诞生。

他表示，myTOURS的成功来自3‘Cs’ – 商务（Commerce）、内容（Content）及社会（Community）。

“myTOURS 的第一个C为商务（Commerce）。商务平台开启了个人的网上旅游业务，协助旅游代理及供应商在国内及国外互相联系，快速刺激旅游业成长。这领域可建立、维持及推广他们的电子商务点，同时开发有利可图的网上业务。”Rohizam说。

“第二个C是内容（Content）。作为一个集中式的数据仓库，我们为所有myTOURS用户提供广泛的旅游资讯、活动、旅游规划等等。这‘C’的部分内容为我们网站的‘吸引力’。

“最后一个C为社会（Community）。随着2.0网络用户提供内容的成长趋势，因此必须把用户融入一个平衡点。用户能够给予游客批评及分享他们对旅游产品或服务的经验，甚至，提供建议予他们曾旅游过的地点”他补充。

“myTOURS的开发是要让游客及旅游服务提供者受惠。最终，我们要myTOURS集中火力推广旅游业，以让大马在全球市场发光发芒。”

Creative Advances Technology (CAT) Launches myTOURS

Malaysia’s First Consolidated Tourism e-Business Platform

Kuala Lumpur, 22 July 2008: Creative Advances Technology (CAT) launches its Malaysian Tourism Online Unified Reservation System (myTOURS), a consolidated tourism e-business platform that will unite government agencies, various sectors of the travel industry, and consumers. The online platform includes components such as Hotels2Go and Flights2Go, and other travel-related technology integral to the entire supply chain of the tourism industry.

CAT, the developer of Virtual Malaysia.Com - the official e-tourism portal for the Ministry of Tourism - expects to sign up 300 participating travel agents, airlines, hotels and travel suppliers on the myTOURS platform.

CAT, a recipient of the MSC Malaysia development grant created myTOURS as part of MSC Malaysia’s plan to develop a national e-business infrastructure that will help spur and lead Malaysian businesses into the e-economy.

Lauding CAT’s success, CEO of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) Dato’ Badlisham Ghazali said CAT’s move in creating innovative solutions to spur the country’s tourism was hand in hand with MSC Malaysia’s ongoing efforts in galvanizing the local ICT industry.

“It is our hope at MSC Malaysia that by improving the development capability through grants; we will see substantial growth in innovation among the MSC Malaysia Status Companies. Ultimately, our goal is to create world class ICT companies which provides solutions and content for the world,” said Badlisham.

Rohizam Md Yusoff, CEO of Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd said the idea of myTOURS came up at a time the supply chain at the industry level was fragmented and at the same time, the demand for online travel from consumers was huge, and growing.

He said the success of myTOURS relies on its three ‘Cs’ – Commerce, Content, and Community.

“The first C of myTOURS is Commerce. The Commerce platform is to jump-start one’s online travel business, help travel agents and suppliers connect with each other whether they are inside or outside of Malaysia and spur the travel industry to grow faster than ever. The industry can build, maintain and promote their e-commerce sites and at the same time develop a profitable online business,” said Rohizam.

“The second C is Content. It can be seen as a centralised data warehouse in which we provide extensive travel destination information, event coverage, travel planner, and so on to all myTOURS subscribers. The content part of the ‘C’ is the ‘sticky’ side of our website.”

“The final C is Community. With the growing trend of user generated content in the Web 2.0 boom, it is imperative to include the users into the equation. Users are able to comment and share about their experiences on travel products or services and even advice other travellers on places that they have visited,” he added.

“myTOURS was developed to benefit both travellers and travel service providers. Ultimately, we want myTOURS to be seen as a concentrated effort to promote the tourism industry in order to create maximum visibility for Malaysia in the globe.”

Creative Advances Technology (CAT) 推介大马首个综合旅游电子商务平台--myTOURS

吉隆坡，2008年7月22日: Creative Advances Technology (CAT)推介大马旅游网上统一预订系统(myTOURS)。这是一项结合政府机构、旅游业各领域及消费者的综合旅游电子商务平台。这项网上平台包括Hotels2Go、Flights2Go及其他旅游相关科技和结合旅游业的供应连锁。

大马旅游部的官方电子旅游网站Virtual Malaysia.Com 的开发公司CAT预料能在myTOURS平台与300家旅游代理、航空公司、酒店及旅游供应商签署合作。

获得大马多媒体超级走廊发展基金的CAT通过开创myTOURS，成为大马多媒体超级走廊要开发国内电子商务基础设备的部分计划，这预料能激励并带领大马商业迈向电子经济。

Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC)首席执行员拿督Badlisham Ghazali 在表扬CAT的成功时表示，CAT与大马多媒体超级走廊携手合作提升本地资讯通讯科技领域，开创新方案来促进国内旅游业。

“我们大马多媒体超级走廊希望通过发展基金能提升发展潜能；我们将看到获得大马多媒体超级走廊地位的公司的创新出现显著成长。我们的最终目标是开创世界级资讯通讯科技公司，为全世界提供解决方案及内容。”Badlisham说。

Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd首席执行员Rohizam Md Yusoff表示，旅游业的供应连锁零散，而消费者对网上旅游的需求却非常庞大，并不断成长中，这一切促成了myTOURS的诞生。

他表示，myTOURS的成功来自3‘Cs’ – 商务（Commerce）、内容（Content）及社会（Community）。

“myTOURS 的第一个C为商务（Commerce）。商务平台开启了个人的网上旅游业务，协助旅游代理及供应商在国内及国外互相联系，快速刺激旅游业成长。这领域可建立、维持及推广他们的电子商务点，同时开发有利可图的网上业务。”Rohizam说。

“第二个C是内容（Content）。作为一个集中式的数据仓库，我们为所有myTOURS用户提供广泛的旅游资讯、活动、旅游规划等等。这‘C’的部分内容为我们网站的‘吸引力’。

“最后一个C为社会（Community）。随着2.0网络用户提供内容的成长趋势，因此必须把用户融入一个平衡点。用户能够给予游客批评及分享他们对旅游产品或服务的经验，甚至，提供建议予他们曾旅游过的地点”他补充。

“myTOURS的开发是要让游客及旅游服务提供者受惠。最终，我们要myTOURS集中火力推广旅游业，以让大马在全球市场发光发芒。”