Tourism Malaysia attaches great importance to the 10th Straits Travel Fair, which is running concurrently with the Xiamen Investment Fair. The country brought 10 local travel agencies to the event. Zhu Xingxin / China Daily

Since Malaysia is the Guest Country of Honor of the 18th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, Tourism Malaysia attaches great importance to the 10th Straits Travel Fair, which is running at the same time, said Li Cuiyu, who is the marketing manager of Tourism Malaysia South China.

"We have come to the Straits Travel Fair every year since it was held, but this year we attended it on the largest scale yet," said Li.

"In previous years, we brought three to four Malaysian local travel agencies here, this year we bought 10," she .

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Li said Fujian province is a market with huge potential for tourism in Malaysia, and the fair provides a good opportunity for exchange and promotion among the travel agencies from both sides.

Although the fair is bigger and better organized this time, Li said it would be great if next time there was public meeting room that exhibitors could use.

"Each exhibitor could use the meeting room to give a presentation to an audience, instead of having to talk to people one at a time," she said.

Liu Bo, secretary of the Yilan Association of Tourism Xiamen Office, who was attending the fair for the second time, said this year the whole environment of the fair has improved a lot.

"Last year, the exhibitor next to us was making a lot of noise all the time, as they were using a loudspeaker to promote their products; it was awful," she said.

But she said the quality of exhibitors has improved this year.

While she will attend the event next year, she said she hopes more will be done to promote it.

In addition to the 10th Straits Travel Fair, the first Amoy International Art Fair was also held at the same time as the 18th CIFIT this year.

"We decided to attend the Amoy International Art Fair because the art market in Fujian has begun to blossom since last year, and the reserve of antiques in Fujian is especially rich due to historical reasons," said Zhao Yi, manager of the modern and contemporary art department at Beijing A&F International Auction Co Ltd.

Currently, their main business is based in Beijing, but they are looking to expand and attend the art fair this year to better understand the local art market.