Nazri: 'Impression Melaka' show to be Visit Malaysia Year 2014 key driver

Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Impression Melaka show has been endorsed as the latest entry point project within the Tourism National Key Economic Area (NKEA).

Scheduled to be launched in October next year, the project is expected to attract 1.2 million tourists per year, generating RM179mil of gross national income for the country.

Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the show would become one of the iconic events for Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

"This is a spectacular tourism product for the country, enlightening our history and cultural with the Straits of Malacca as the background," he told a press conference before the Ministry's Hari Raya open house at Malaysia Tourism Centre here Tuesday.

"This will definitely spur the tourism industry and I am sure the project will be a great success," he said. "The show will create about 500 direct employment and thousands of indirect jobs for the locals," he added.

Impression Melaka is the first mega outdoor Impression series outside China. The show will features an outdoor performance, directed by famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou, Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue - also directors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

It will showcase a perfect combination of natural environment as the background whilst utilising the latest light and sound technologies, modern art concepts and a huge number of cultural performers. The show will be performed two to three times a night, with each performance lasting for about 70-90 minutes.

Meanwhile, Nazri also said Malaysia recorded 12.55 million tourists arrivals in the first half of the year, a 7.9% gowth compared to the same period of 11.6 million last year. Correspondingly, he said, tourist receipts also rose by 16.3%, contributing RM31.18bil to the country's revenue from RM26.8bil last year.

Most of the tourists were from Singapore, Indonesia, China, Brunei, Thailand, India, Philippines, Japan, Australia and Britain. China recorded a double-digit growth of 24.5%, followed by Taiwan (22.5%), Japan (15.9%) and Sri Lanka (13%).

A few markets recorded a decline in tourist arrivals, namely Iran (44.2%), followed by New Zealand (8.1%), India (4.6%), UAE (4%), South Korea (3.6%) and Saudi Arabia (2.7%).

-thestar online.