Develop Tourism Industry Based On What We Have, Says Victor Wee

KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 (Bernama) -- The best way to develop the tourism industry in Malaysia is to capitalise on what the country has to offer, said Chairman of Tourism Malaysia Datuk Dr Victor Wee. Exchanging views on how to maximise tourism potential, Wee said countries that aim to tap into tourism to enhance their economies should leverage on their strengths and be creative in attracting visitors. Citing Malaysia as example, Wee said, even the monsoon season itself had been turned into a tourism product despite the fact that it is regarded as a low period for tourism and hindered tourism potential. Referring to the "Monsoon Cup" regatta off the coast of Terengganu, Wee said the monsoon period with its strong winds and rain had proven to be an advantage with proper planning. "We have a competition. We invite people...sailors to come and compete with one another. Instead of seeing the monsoon season as a disadvantage, it is now a feature of our tourism and has put the country on the world map," he said during a panel discussion at the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), here Thursday. 

The discussion entitted "Tapping Tourism Potential:Putting Resources to Work", was moderated by Chairman, Malaysia Airlines and Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad, Tan Sri Mohd Munir Abdul Majid. Wee said capitalising on the country's best tourism feature - diverse ethnic groups - Malaysia had leveraged on what it had in the country and created the 'Malaysia Truly Asia' campaign, which has grown into a brand of its own. Apart from that, Wee said, to further enhance the tourism industry, Malaysia had made significant moves to package existing products so as to make them more appealing to the niche markets. This included medical tourism, educational tourism, home-stay products, eco-tourism, the "Malaysia My Second Home" programme and shopping festivals which targeted different markets around the world. Wee said the launch of the Visit Malaysia Year in 2007 went a long way in re-engineering all stakeholders' perspective on tourism and helped align them with the objectives of the government's tourism initiatives. "These strategies have seen our tourism arrivals increase four-fold in ten years; from 5.5 million tourist arrivals in 1998 to 22 million in 2008," he said. 

Maldives Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Dr Ahmed Ali Awad, who was also on the panel, spoke on the evolution of his country's tourism industry from rustic home-stay products to the sophisticated high-end resorts of Thursday. Admitting that with lack of resources and connectivity back in the 1960s, Dr Ahmed Ali said, the island country was not even on the main tourism routes. "Some pioneers brought European tourists on home-stay programmes to our idyllic islands by simple boats. They carried stories of their stay here by word-of-mouth, and that's how our tourism industry was born," he revealed. Recognising the country's tourism potential, the government ensured that it made infrastructure development a priority, including building an international airport which later put the island on the air routes, he added. However, he said it was the unique concept of "One Island, One resort" policy which emphasized on environment preservation and ensuring sustainable development that has gave the Maldives tourism industry a boost. "We abide by the one island, one resort policy, which limits one resort being built per island. And all resort structures may only occupy 20 per cent of the islands' land area and are not to be built higher than the tallest tree," he said. 

For Executive Council member of the South African Ministry of Economic Development & Tourism, Michael Mabuyakhulu, he said players in the tourism industry had to do business in a different way to fulfil the desires of today's tourists. He said to meet their needs of "more output for less input", industry players must upgrade their services and quality. Mabuyakhulu said, the time to sell countries individually had passed, thus industry players had to cooperate and collaborate to sell regions as destinations. He said South Africa had begun to do this in the build up to the FIFA 2010 World Cup finals, which will be held there. In conclusion, the panel discussion agreed that tourism had the potential to change the face of nations, build cultural bridges and alleviate poverty if the right strategies are applied.