The
award was presented to her by PATA Chairman, Hiran Cooray, witnessed by the
Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Hon. Tan Sri Dato' Hj. Muhyiddin Mohd.
Yassin, during the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 PATA Annual Conference at the
Royale Chulan Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
Indeed,
Dato' Sri Dr. Ng is no stranger to the tourism industry. Her entrance into
tourism began as the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Malaysia, from 1999 to 2003,
and later as the Minister of Tourism from 2009 until today.
Throughout
her combined seven years of leadership in tourism, she has led the industry
with great passion and commitment, injecting innovative ideas and creativity as
well as her own brand of infectious enthusiasm to gain the partnership of
members to drive the industry forward.
During
her stewardship as Tourism Minister, Malaysia’s tourism performance reached
great heights. It saw an increase of tourist arrivals from 23.6 million
tourists in 2009 to 24.7 million in 2011, and correspondingly, receipts surged
from RM53.4 billion (USD17.8 billion) in 2009 to RM58.3 billion (USD19.4
billion).
It
was also during her time at the tourism helm that Malaysia secured the 9th
spot as most visited country in the world by UNWTO for three years in a row,
from 2009 to 2011, an achievement that was made even more significant due to
the challenges plaguing the global tourism industry during those years.
A
medical officer by profession, her determination, affable character and
boundless energy have resulted in many significant milestones in tourism. She
initiated the "1Malaysia Green, 1Malaysia Clean" campaign to promote
conservation awareness; advocated for the abolishment of import duties to brand
Malaysia as a duty free destination; re-invigorated the homestay programme to
encourage tourism participation and bring benefit to rural communities;
encouraged the creation and development of luxury tourism; explored new
geographical tourism markets and niche tourism products.
She
was instrumental in leveraging Malaysia as a luxury tourism destination, which
included a focus on parks and gardens tourism, an initiative that saw Malaysia receiving
the gold awards for its garden concept at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower
Show in London for two years in a row (2010 and 2011).
Much
respected among her peers in the tourism industry, both locally and
internationally, Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng feels that her best work is yet to come.
Through the Malaysian Tourism Transformation Plan she created, she has much
grand plans for Malaysia’s tourism industry, that is to achieve 36 million tourists
and RM168 billion (USD56 billion) in receipts by 2020.
For
her great achievements and accomplishments in tourism, today and the future, the
Hon. Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen truly deserves to receive this year's PATA
Honorary Life Member Award.
At the 2012 PATA Annual Conference,
Malaysia also received three PATA Gold Awards, which is a recognition of
excellence, innovation, and the best tourism standards in Asia Pacific’s travel
and tourism industry.
Two of the awards were won by Tourism
Malaysia in the categories of Marketing – Primary Government Destination for
its ‘A Million Experiences to Share’ campaign, and Marketing Media – Travel
Poster for its posters depicting the Orang Utan, Diving, Mount Kinabalu,
Homestay and Siti Khadijah Market.
The third award was won by the
Frangipani Langkawi Resort & Spa in the category ‘Environment – Educational
Programme’ for the management of its waste water system.
-Tourism Malaysia.
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