Smart Online Travel Assistant – MALAYSIA WORLD HERITAGE TRAVEL SITE

Virtual Travel Fair 5: Travel at your fingertips

The Virtual Travel Fair 2013 by The Star Online’s allMalaysia.info is on! It offers discerning travellers a conveninent and afforable way to travel, with loads of packaged options.

With over 4,000 travel packages in a span of two weeks, the Virtual Travel Fair 2013 is back, promising travellers even better deals than ever.

What better way to shop for your holiday than from the comfort of your home and with the simplicity of a mouse click. It’ll save you the hassle of visiting a physical fair – i.e. the big crowds and parking woes.

This is the fifth edition of the fair, organised by The Star Online’s information and travel portal allMalaysia.info and powered by the Smart Online Travel Assistant (SOTA). It is held twice a year in March and September.

This installment runs from March 13 to 29 and visitors also get to participate in an e-auction segment to bid for their preferred getaway.

Aside from the amazing e-auction attraction, a major drawcard is the prizes that await – for every minimum transaction of RM100 at this virtual travel fair, you stand a chance of winning a 3D2N Macau Holiday package (includes flight, stay at a four-star hotel, daily breakfast, half-day city tour and a dinner for two persons)

There is also no shortage of travel variety judging by the amount of packages offered this time – suitable for holidaymakers across all age and income level.

According to SOTA, this Virtual Travel Fair stimulates the physical consumer travel fair where customers are offered travel packages from suppliers worldwide over a single website, round the clock.

While other websites do run online travel fairs, they are confined to an aggregation of travel packages offered by brick-and-mortar fairs.

The marked difference with this Virtual Travel Fair is that travel deals offered are available exclusively online from multiple operators, among the 1,400-plus travel agents and hotels worldwide that use this SOTA platform.

Navigation around the website is also user-friendly and easy with buttons that ensure all information is available. In fact the booking experience may well add to the fun of your holiday!

If you are concerned about the authenticity of online payments, worry not as it is made very safe with secure payment getaways like iPay88 and PayPal, both of which are systems used by Virtual Travel Fair since the start.

Account holders of Maybank2u and CIMB Clicks Online banking can also choose to pay for their travel packages via this option.

With environmental consciousness now the rage and pledge, make it more than just lip service by starting this small step of going green with online bookings.

It may seem insignificant in the larger frame of the planet but every contribution towards Mother Earth counts. If as many of us can help cut down on the need to drive to travel fairs or receive promotional paper materials about these deals, surely that’s helping to reduce petrol consumption and the cutting down of trees.

Even buntings, banners or plastic bags need not end up as unnecessary wastes in landfills. Mother Earth would certainly appreciate that!

There will also be lucky draw prizes to win and instant rebates that you get to enjoy.

To check out the best deals that Malaysia’s foremost online fair can offer, visit allmalaysia.info/virtualtravelfair

Virtual Travel Fair: Seven reasons why you should get your travel deals online

The Virtual Travel Fair brings the fair to you.

Virtual Travel Fair 2012 (September 7 – 30).

So, you’re looking for a travel bargain. If that’s the case, you’d probably do what most Malaysians do – wait for a travel fair.

You brave the crowds, jostle through narrow walkways in a cramped hall to talk to harried-looking travel agent reps, and finally end up purchasing a travel package, the details of which you’re not entirely clear about.

Well, you don’t have to do that any longer: allMalaysia.info, in collaboration with the folks behind it all, SOTA (Smart Online Travel Assistant), present the Virtual Travel Fair, a different kind of travel fair.

Our tagline promises “no traffic jam, no jostling crowds, no hassle”, and we certainly deliver; have done so ever since we started the online fair back in March 2011.

The latest edition – the fourth – starts today (Sept 7) and will run till Sept 30, 2012. Now, here are seven reasons why you ought to consider ‘going’ to the Virtual Travel Fair:

Convenience

The most obvious reason why you should make your travel bargain purchases online is of course, the convenience of it all.

With the Virtual Travel Fair, you’ll only need an Internet connection to start shopping – yep, fire up the computer, laptop or tablet, and let your fingers do the walking. Heck, you can make your purchases while you’re in your PJs if you’re so inclined!

Incentives/Rewards

When you make a purchase at the Virtual Travel Fair, more likely than not you’ll find that it comes with a mouth-watering incentive or reward, in the form of instant rebates, attractive gifts and cash prizes. It has been a hallmark of the Virtual Travel Fair, of sorts.

This time around we’re offering buyers with packages that come with Lowest- Price-Guarantee (LPG) tags. What that means is, if you can find a better deal for the same package elsewhere, we’ll pay the difference in pricing, so that you don’t lose out.

Add to that the e-Auction, bids of which start at a cool, low RM10, and you’re very likely to end up with a sweet deal.

Variety and Value For Money

The variety of travel packages offered and the value for money for the same were responsible for the success of the first two fairs held in 2011.

Using the same formula, the team behind the Virtual Travel Fair has refined and improved the variety of offerings to satisfy all age and income groups and provide them with more incentives and rewards. This can be seen from what’s on offer for the fourth edition.

The devil’s in the details

There’s no confusion as to what you’ll get when you purchase a package. Just click on the ‘Get Details’ button, and you’ll find all the details you’d require: where you’d stay, what you’d do, what your purchases cover etc.

And if you’re still not satisfied, just use the live chat function to talk with a sales rep.

Safe and Secure Online Shopping

The VTF is well known for safe and secure online travel shopping. Known secure payment gateways such as PayPal and iPay88 have been onboard since the first fair.

On top of that those who have Maybank2u and CIMB Clicks online banking accounts will find it a breeze to safely and securely purchase travel packages at the VTF.

Virtual Travel Fair: The Biggest Online Fair?

It’s no hyperbole to say that the Virtual Travel Fair may indeed be the biggest online travel fair in the world. If it isn’t it certainly is one of the biggest.

Consider this: While there are some sites running online travel fairs, they are mostly limited to offering an aggregation of travel packages offered in brick- and-mortar travel fairs.

What sets the Virtual Travel Fair apart is the travel deals offered are available online from multiple operators, among the 1400+ travel agents and hotels worldwide who are using the SOTA platform.

Go Green

Virtual Travel Fair aims to create more environmentally-conscious travellers by promoting the concept of online purchase of travel products. If more consumers use online travel platforms to buy travel, it will cut the need to drive to travel fairs or meet travel agents. This means less consumption of petrol and the reduction of exhaust fumes released into the environment.

It would also dispense with the need for having physical promotional materials like printed flyers and brochures, which usually get collected and littered. There’s also no need to print plastic bags and buntings or banners which ultimately gets disposed and add more waste material to the environment.

So, be a responsible holidaymaker and Go Green by visiting the Virtual Travel Fair at allmalaysia.info/virtualtravelfair now.