Malaysia eyes Kiwi tourists

ROTORUA (New Zealand): Malaysia is eyeing the 90,000 New Zealanders who visit Britain annually, hoping to lure them to “drop by” for at least a week in the country while enroute to Europe. About 63,000 New Zealanders visited Malaysia last year but Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen believes the number can be increased by 1.5 times if those who head to Britain can be convinced to land for a few days and tour Malaysia. Dr Ng, who has spent time meeting with people involved in the tourism industry in New Zealand over the past few days, said she found that there was great potential to increase the number of New Zealanders visiting Malaysia.

“New Zealanders are very keen travellers to other parts of the world. “They are keen on food, arts and crafts, as well as horticulture,” she said yesterday.

Welcome: Ng (left) with her husband Dr Chin Chee Sue getting a briefing during their tour of a Maori village on Thursday.

She said that she had obtained data which showed that about 90,000 New Zealanders head for Britain each year. “We want to get them to come to Malaysia for about five days or one week. “We can tailor special packages that can give them a relaxing and enjoyable time before they fly off to Britain,” she said. Ng is on a 10-day mission to promote Malaysia in New Zealand and Australia.

She has called on Tourism Malaysia to launch aggressive campaigns in New Zealand by drawing up new packages as soon as possible.

-theStar online.