Tourism Ministry To List More Duty Free Items To Make Malaysia Shopping Destination

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 (Bernama) -- The Tourism Ministry hopes to identify more goods to be listed under duty free items to make Malaysia a preferred shopping destination for tourists, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen. She said shopping has been recognised as a major contributor to Malaysia's tourism industry. "We want to be a mega shopping player in the world and working hard to make Malaysia a duty free country for goods. I am not saying that goods in Malaysia are the cheapest, but it is value for money," she told reporters after launching the Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival 2010, here Tuesday.

The Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival will be held from Saturday to Sept 16 and Yen Yen expressed satisfaction with tour operators for promoting the Mega Sales event to countries like Vietnam, India, the Middle East, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan by including shopping as part of their tour packages. She said tour operators had worked together with hotels, airlines, shopping complexes to promote the mega sale, which included offering discounts to those who took up the packages. Yen Yen said from January to May this year, the number of tourists arrivals had grown by 4.2 percent from 9 million to 9.6 million tourists, generating revenue of RM13 billion.

Last year, the July Mega Sales attracted 6.3 million tourist, which was an increase of 12.4 percent compared with the same period in 2008, where Malaysia only received 5.37 million tourist, she said. From the total tourist arrivals last year, shopping activities generated a revenue of RM15.11 billion to the country, she added.