Yen Yen: Get tourists to shop more

KUALA LUMPUR: The private sector should work with the Tourism Ministry to organise sales promotions to increase shopping expenditure of foreign tourists, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen. She said the ministry hoped to increase shopping expenditure of tourists by 10% by the year 2020.

Of the RM56.5bil spent last year by 24.6 million foreign tourists, only 25% was shopping expenditure. Dr Ng said the Government had helped to upgrade the Bukit Bintang area by getting all the malls connected for easy shopping and allowing many items to be marked duty-free. “We also created more sales festivals like MegaSales and organised annual international events such as the International Shoe Festival and the 1Malaysia Contemporary Art Tourism Festival,” she told reporters after launching the 8th Malaysia International Jeweller Fair (MIJF) 2011 at the Kuala Lumpur Conv­ention Centre here yesterday.

MIJF organiser Elite Expo Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Johnson Lim said over 100 jewellery companies from 16 countries including Turkey, Japan, Indonesia and the UAE would exhibit more than 100,000 pieces of exquisite and spectacular jewellery collections. “We hope to get 18,000 visitors from traders and consumers for this four-day event,” he said, adding that visitors could get discounts due to the tax exemption policy that was implemented on Jan 1,” he said. MIJF 2011 will be held from July 7 to 10. The opening hours are from 11am to 7pm and admission is free.
-thestar online.