Malaysia eyes niche tourism

ADELAIDE: Malaysia wants to develop niche tourism programmes to enhance bilateral ties and get more Australians to visit, said Minister of Tourism Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen. Several new niche areas could be developed in Malaysia specifically catering to Australians.

They include:

> SANDAKAN-RANAU heroes’ trail for former Australian soldiers and their families in remembrance of the 2,000 soldiers who died in the death march during the Japanese Occupation during World War Two;

> VOLUNTEERISM-TOURISM for students from Australia, where one-year visas will be issued to 100 Australian students to do volunteer work in Malaysia;

> “GOLDEN third age” packages to attract Australian retirees and their families to visit and even live in Malaysia,

> ESTABLISHING link with home stay associations in Australia; and

> SETTING up a Malaysia Living Arts Tourism package to attract Australian artists to Malaysia; and turn Malaysia into Asean’s very first live art tourism destination.

Dr Ng said there were many new things we could learn from the Australian tourism industry. For example, more than 500,000 tourists visit the Adelaide Arts Museum here. This is a tremendous figure. “If we can do something similar in terms of arts for Malaysia, we can attract more Australians and visitors from other countries to visit us every year,’’ she said after visiting the Adelaide Arts Museum. Dr Ng is on a 10-day promotion mission to Australia and New Zealand.

However, the minister ex pressed concern that there were still negative perceptions about issues regarding Malaysia’s alleged deforestation and destruction of orang utan habitats due to oil palm projects. “We need to clear the air over these issues. We need to explain to people here that Malaysia has policies in place to protect, preserve and conserve our forests and our eco assets. “There are many Australians who expressed surprise that we in Malaysia, actually have a ministry to handle environmental issues,” she said.

-thestar online.