Tourism truck to boost local destinations

KUALA LUMPUR: The country's first “mobile tourism truck” will visit morning and night markets as well as carnivals in a move to introduce local sights and sounds to Malaysians. Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the truck would travel to events around Malaysia. Showing off the truck which was equipped with a television screen, information counter, sound system and brochure holders, she said:

Mobile ad: This ‘moving billboard’, launched in Kuala Lumpur Thursday, will be a common sight at markets and carnivals.

“This is a new mode of advertising. We need more Malaysians to know about our beautiful country.” At the launch of the mobile advertising campaign yesterday, Dr Ng also unveiled a “moving billboard” truck, which will display various tourism advertisements as it travels around the country. She encouraged all tourism agencies and non-governmental organisations to notify the ministry a month in advance if they wanted the mobile trucks at their events.

“We're confident that this will help increase awareness about Malaysia's holiday destinations and boost domestic tourism,” Dr Ng said, adding that domestic trips had experienced a huge boost of 90.5 million trips in 2009 from 63.3 million in 2008. She also said that domestic tourism had raked in around RM26bil in 2009, contributing to the year's total tourism receipt of RM80bil.

Dr Ng said the ministry would also focus on attracting tourists from Asia including China, Russia and India. “We're also looking at establishing a tourism office in Istanbul,” she said, adding that a drop in tourists from Egypt (30%) and Yemen (15%) was expected while Japanese tourist arrivals was estimated to drop 30% with 1,861 cancelled trips so far.

-thestar online.