MALAYSIA Convention and Exhibition Bureau chief executive Abdul Khani has retired after a 38-year career in the tourism and business events industries.
After starting his career with Tourism Malaysia in 1985, Khani pioneered initiatives for Muslim-friendly tourism and was director general of the Islamic Tourism Centre from 2018 to 2020.
During his time at Tourism Malaysia he was posted as an overseas director for offices in Australia, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand.
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Khani is credited proven results including an increase of 60 per cent tourist arrivals from Singapore between 2000 and 2004, and a 45 per cent growth for Latin America with the market for Argentina also opening.
More recently he also played an instrumental role in establishing the Business Events Special Lane at major airports to ensure smooth entry for delegates, and the MySafe Business Events Planner – a digital planner to assist and guide international business events planners and organisers.
Khani was also the driving force behind the 10-year strategy, the Malaysia Business Events Strategic Marketing Plan 2021 -2030, which forecasted that business events would contribute MYR42.12 billion (about US$9.2bn) in estimated economic impact while creating around 25,833 jobs.
