Foreign trips raised tourism revenue by RM635mil, says Ng Yen Yen

KUALA LUMPUR: The foreign trips and promotions by the Tourism Minister last year generated an increase of RM635.3mil in foreign exchange revenues compared to 2010, Parliament was told. The increase could be derived from the promotions of prestige tourism and high spending tourists to Malaysia.

In 2011, foreign tourists spending in the shopping sector alone made up 30% of the total revenue for the industry, which is RM17.5bil compared to 28.7% or RM16.2bil in the previous year, the minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen told Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh) during Question Time.

Kok had asked the ministry to list the minister's foreign trips and tourism promotion from 2010. Dr Ng said that the official promotional visits to various countries had also increased tourist arrivals, boost revenue as well as opening new markets.

In 2011, we went for several promotional visits, including to Iran, Indonesia, China, Russia, Philippines, Vietnam, and United Arab Emirates in conjunction with the Arab Travel Mart, Dr Ng said. For instance, tourists from China increased by 10.6% from 1,130,261 visitors in 2010 to 1,250,536 in 2011, generating 12.6% increase in revenue from RM3.1bil to RM3.5bil.

This year, from January to August, we visited Singapore, Philippines, and Germany in conjunction with the Internationale Tourismus Borse (ITB), she said.

-thestar online.