Open tender for tourism ads: Yen Yen

KUALA LUMPUR: Transparent open tender system will be used for all tourism advertisements between now and 2013, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said. She also clarified that the actual value of the tender was RM127mil a year and not RM300mil as reported in the media and blogs.

Ng also reiterated that six Tourism Malaysia staff, who were questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) last week, were only assisting the commission's investigations into the tender. "Tourism Malaysia and the ministry give our 100 percent cooperation to the MACC. They came to Tourism Malaysia head office on Thursday and Friday to obtain reports and documents from some of the officers," she told reporters here.

Earlier, she witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Mercedes-Benz Malaysia and STYLO International in conjunction with STYLO Fashion Grand Prix KL 2011 from April 3-10.

Ng said she had invited the MACC, through the ministry's director-general Datuk Dr Ong Hong Peng, to probe the matter following numerous accusations in the media and blogs.

On another issue, Ng said the ministry had yet to receive any report on Malaysian tourists affected by the earthquake and tsunami disasters in north-east Japan. She said it was difficult to determine the number of Malaysian tourists to Japan because some of them might have gone there on their own. "If they are travelling on a tour package, the tour agents would know (their whereabouts). I've contacted several agencies and was told that no report received so far," she said. Ng added that she believed that there were not many tourists coming to the north-east of Japan, which was hit by the double disasters, because the area was not a tourist attraction.
- Bernama