PETALING JAYA: Hard work by the Government and the people in promoting Malaysia is the reason for it making into the top 10 of the world’s most visited countries, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.
Giving her thumbs up to the country’s latest ranking in the United Nations World Trade Organisation (UNWTO) Tourism Highlights 2012, Dr Ng said this was all down to hard work.
“Our brand has been Malaysia Truly Asia and with that comes a myriad of experiences that tourists can enjoy such as our multi-culturalism, which many countries do not have. “This is something that tourists love,” she said here yesterday.
Malaysia has the distinction of being the only South-East Asian country to make it into the world’s top 10 tourist destinations in the UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2012. The report rated Malaysia ninth based on international tourist arrivals, with 24.7million foreign tourists last year.
In 2009, the country recorded 23.6 million tourist arrivals and the number increased to 24.6 million the next year. The report also ranked Malaysia 14th in terms of international tourism receipts with US$18.3bil (RM56.3bil) last year.
In 2009 and 2010, Malaysia recorded US$15.8bil (RM48.6bil) and US$18.2bil (RM55.9bil) respectively in tourism receipts.
Dr Ng said her ministry had promoted Malaysia as a diverse attraction, offering world class experiences such as eco-tourism, shoe and art festivals, shopping and fun for the families. While Chinese and Middle Eastern tourists like shopping, she pointed out that Russian tourists like beaches.
The Government, she added, had also given funding to light up the Bukit Bintang shopping precinct and build walkways.
Under MICE, she said some 2,000 executives from a big Japanese cosmetic company were due to have their meeting in February.
The ministry, added Dr Ng, also had an agreement with the Bank of China to woo their premium customers to take up the Malaysia My Second Home programme.
Acknowledging challenges such as better connectivity, Dr Ng said they were working hard to overcome this, adding that the ministry was aiming to attract some 36 million visitors, who would bring in RM168bil in receipts by 2020.
-thestar online.
www.motour.gov.my
www.tourism.gov.my
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