Ms. Zahira Tahir is CEO & Founder Universal Holidays.

Most Influential Women Leader in Travel Industry. 

With a 26-year career in the travel industry that began with an airline and progressed to an international company, Zahira Tahir and her partner founded Universal Holidays Travel & Tourism in 2010.

Starting with a small team and focusing solely on MICE, Universal Holidays has rapidly expanded, becoming one of the top inbound players through strategic partnerships and consolidators.
Zahira is a prominent figure in Malaysia’s inbound tourism sector, gaining recognition in India, Pakistan, the GCC, and beyond. In 2019, she received accolades including:

– Most Influential Women Leaders in Tourism Industry (CMO India)
– Asian Women Leaders, World Women Leadership Congress, 10th Edition, Singapore.
Committed to advancing and digitizing the tourism industry, Universal Holidays launched www.u-pass.tours, a comprehensive B2B Tourism Platform that won the Best Digital Marketing Platform 2021 from Malaysia Tourism Council & Tourism Selangor.

Under Zahira’s leadership, the company won the Malaysia Tourism Council Gold Award for Inbound MICE for three consecutive years: 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2024, Universal Holidays was honored as the Best Event Provider, highlighting its dedication to delivering professional MICE solutions.
Universal Holidays was also recognized as a “Malaysia Tourism Hero” in the 2019 Malaysia Productivity Corporation Coffee Table Book and has received awards from hotels and attractions as a top producer.