550 Programmes Drawn Up For Malaysian Festival Year

MELAKA, Nov 21 (Bernama) -- More than 500 programmes at the state level and 50 mega events at the national level have been drawn up for the Malaysia Year of Festival (MyFest) next year to woo foreign tourists into the country.

The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Datuk Dr Ong Hong Peng, said the campaign played an important role in efforts to achieve the target of 29.4 million tourist arrivals and a revenue of RM89 billion next year.

"The programmes and activities drawn up for the whole of next year are expected to continue to boost the national tourism industry and maintain Malaysia's position as a major tourist destination in the world," he said at a press conference, here Friday.

Earlier, he gave a briefing on MyFest 2015 to more than 900 tourism industry activists in the state, which was also attended by the Director-General of Tourism Malaysia, Datuk Mirza Mohammad Taiyab and the Deputy State Executive Councillor for Tourism, River, Beach and Island Development Datuk Ghazale Muhamad.

Ong said Myfest 2015 was part of the Malaysian Tourism Transformation Plan to attract 36 million tourists and generate revenue totalling RM168 billion by 2020.

He said the MyFest 2015 campaign, with the theme 'Endless Celebrations', featured the uniqueness of the faces of Malaysia through the festivals, cultures, traditional heritage of the various ethnic groups, beauty of the cities and the delicacy of the foods of the various communities.
-bernama.