Yen Yen: Eco-tourism requires people who can tell stories about tourist attractions

BANGI: Malaysia needs to produce more specialist guides to provide quality tourism service and boost the eco-tourism industry. Currently, the country has 4,000 general tour guides, some of whom are not professionals, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said. “We want more specialist tour guides who can tell stories about our tourist attractions,” she said during a visit to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) here yesterday.
Dr Ng said the ministry had set up a joint committee with UKM and the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to develop modules aimed to train and produce more expert guides.

“Locals who are familiar with their home area in tourist destinations such as Fraser’s Hill, Tasik Chini and Lata Jarum should be trained to be specialist guides because they are the experts who can explain the tourist attractions,” she said. Dr Ng added that the ministry was looking forward to collaborating with related ministries and agencies like UKM to develop eco-tourism to generate more revenue.

At another function in KUALA LUMPUR, Dr Ng launched the second instalment of the Fabulous Food 1Malaysia programme – the Asean Heritage Food Trail, which features food from 10 Asean countries. The featured dishes were pai tee from Singapore, prawn and beef spring rolls (Vietnam), fresh Thai salad (Thailand), ikan bakar (Indonesia), mango salad (Cambodia), Burmese roll (Myanmar), pandag (Brunei), lumpia (the Philippines), cherry blossom (Laos) and wajik durian (Malaysia). She said that of RM53.4bil Malaysia earned in tourist receipts last year, the food and beverage component contributed RM9.29bil, “This year, we project tourist expenditure on food and beverage to rise to approximately RM10.3bil,” she said.

Dr Ng said the first instalment of the Fabulous Food 1Malaysia programme was held in October with the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival while the third instalment – the Street Food and Restaurant Food Festival, would take place from Dec 1 to Dec 30. The Asean Heritage Food Trail will also see a 13-episode television series featuring Chef Wan. The programme will air on Astro Prima (channel 105) in the last two weeks of the month.
-thestar online.