Tourism Ministry Aims To Up Domestic Tourism Revenue

JOHOR BARU: The Tourism Ministry aims to generate more than RM40.6bil worth of revenue from domestic tourism traffic this year through efforts such as the 1Malaysia Travel Fair and travel mart, says director-general Datuk Mirza Mohammad Taiyab. He said that about RM40bil was generated through domestic tourism in 2008 while, last year, the sector only generated about RM24.8bil. "Last year there was a significant dip in domestic tourism revenue due to the economic downturn and the people's wait-and-see approach. "We aim to bounce back this year through multiple programmes as well as creating more tourism products," he told newsmen after launching the Travel Mart programme here Friday. Mirza said that the ministry was confident the target revenue could be achieved through cooperation from various parties, especially the tour guides and tour operators. "Malaysians who wish to travel locally should acquire the services of tour operators or agents. "Such operators can get better rates at hotels or resorts as well as provide proper tours," he said. He added that boosting the domestic tourism could also deter locals from going abroad for vacations. "We are indirectly controlling the outbound tourism and thus generating more income for the country," he said.

Mirza also urged tour agents to be more innovative in attracting tourists online as there was a growing feeling that online bookings provided by airlines as well as hotels could diminish their roles. "People are bookings their hotels or airline tickets directly online without going through such agents. "Thus, tour agents must be more creative in attracting tourists to use their services through ways such as offering interesting rates and coming up with more tourism products," he said. Mirza cited an example where a tourist agent could organise a barbeque in a jungle near a resort compared to the mundane method holding it near a hotel's poolside.

On the travel mart, Mirza hoped that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) could benefit from such efforts as it was in line with ministry's goal of boosting the domestic tourism market.
"Part of the travel mart is producing the 'Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia' tourist package brochures as well as other domestic products. "We want the SMEs to take advantage of such wonderful opportunity by generating their own products such as handicrafts and foodstuff," he said.
-The Star