Malaysian Tourism To Continue Joint Efforts To Promote Books Popular With The Japanese

TOKYO, July 3 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board will continue working with the Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books (ITBM) to promote books which are popular with the Japanese in an effort to attract them to visit Malaysia.

Its director, Noor Azlan Abu Bakar, said the Japanese were very interested in reading materials on culture, history and folklore such as about Puteri Gunung Ledang, as well as mystical stories. "We will promote more reading materials like these to the Japanese, as well as comics which depict the Malaysian culture and history.

"I was very excited when the comic series Kampung Boy by Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid or Lat was translated into Japanese, because we know the Japanese love comics or 'manga' as they call them," he said here today.

He was speaking to reporters after visiting the Malaysian Pavilion and attending the poetry recital by Malaysian poets, Datuk Dr Zurinah Hassan and Dr Siti Zainon Ismail at the Tokyo Big Sight in conjunction with the 21st Tokyo International Book Festival (PBAT21) in Japan, held from July 2 to 5.

Meanwhile, on efforts to promote Malaysia to the Japanese in conjunction with the Visit Malaysia Year 2014, Noor Azlan said continuous action was being taken to promote Malaysia to the Japanese in conjunction with the Visit Malaysia Year 2014. "The tourism promotions began at the end of last year and have been increased this year, including posters on billboards, taxis and television advertisements in Japan," he said.

He said the board was targeting 600,000 Japanese tourist arrivals in Malaysia by the end of this year. Between January until June, there were 187,000 Japanese tourist arrivals recorded in Malaysia, compared to the 160,000 for the same period in 2013.

"For the whole of 2013, there were 513,000 Japanese tourist arrivals in Malaysia, with the popular destinations being Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Melaka and Penang," he said.
-bernama.