M’sia finds tourism ally

MELBOURNE: Malaysia has found a powerful tourism ally in National Liaison Council of Chinese-Australians chairman Anson Hong. He has promised to help promote tourism in Malaysia among his more than a million members. Hong, who owns a Chinese newspaper company in Australia and heads five major associations with influence over 120 national organisations, is also a Justice of Peace in South Australia.

“We know Kuala Lumpur. We have heard about Borneo but not Sarawak or Sabah in detail. You have the biggest cave in the world? We would love to see that,” he told The Star here last week.
Hong was one of the VVIPs invited for a luncheon with Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen during her stop here as part of her tourism mission to New Zealand and Australia. Hong said in the state of Victoria alone the Council of Chinese-Australians had more than 400,000 members and had links, among others, in China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. “I will help to promote Malaysia among my association members. Malaysia is still very new to most of us. We have a lot of members who visit China, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Europe and United States every year.

“I am sure they would love to include Malaysia among their travel destinations if we can give them enough publicity about the places of interest,” Hong said. He said Malaysia had several distinct advantages that it should promote extensively if it wanted to draw more tourists.
He said that among them were the currency exchange rate, diverse culture and races, security, favourable climate year-round, ease of communication, good transportation and accommodation, and excellent facilities. “The Australian government provides financial grants to our organisations every year to be used for our overseas travel. Our members go overseas for convention, meetings, excursions, adventure tours, golf, mahjong and even pingpong tournaments.

“We have money to spend. What we look for are new places of interest. I am sure we can find many new destinations in Malaysia that will be very interesting to us,” he added. Hong said Dr Ng’s visit was very useful as she had explained in detail what the states in Malaysia had to offer.
Asked what was the most negative thing he had heard about Malaysia, he said he had heard allegations of “widespread deforestation, illegal logging, wildlife abuse and land disputes with forest people”. Hong said these issues were very sensitive among tourists and must be addressed comprehensively.
-thestar online.