Shopping to bring in RM16bil this year

KUALA LUMPUR: The Tourism Ministry expects shopping to contribute RM16bil to the country’s total tourist expenditure this year. Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said shopping which contributed RM15.1bil in 2009, came second after accommodation. “We hope shopping would contribute an extra RM1bil to the total tourism expenditure this year,” she said at a press conference after launching the Malaysia Year End Sale (M-YES) 2010 at Fahrenheit88 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Last year, shopping contributed about 28.3% of total tourist expenditure. She said it was the ministry’s aim to increase this to 35% by 2020. Dr Ng said Mastercard, the anchor credit card partner in M-YES 2010, reported an increase of 27% in sales in July and the total amount that shoppers spent using the card was RM4bil in just 30 days of shopping. She said the ministry spent about RM20mil every year to develop and promote Malaysia as a top world destination.
“This covers Tourism Malaysia’s Mega Familiarisation Programme, initiatives to promote Malaysia abroad, advertisements and launches,” she said.

Dr Ng said under the Tourism Malaysia’s Mega Familiarisation Programme, 156 journalists, tour operators and key tourism industry players from 20 countries were invited to cover M-YES 2010. “They are from Italy, Australia, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Russia, the Philippines and the United States,” said Dr Ng. Dr Ng added that the ministry hoped to develop Bukit Bintang as a world famous shopping destination like Milan and New York City. She also said that on Jan 1, Malaysia would be a “duty-free” country and that import duties for 300 tourism-related goods would be abolished. “All goods except cigars and cigarettes, liquor and imported cars would be duty free,’’ she said. M-YES is in its tenth year and will end on Jan 2.
-thestar online.