Five companies sign up with Chinese bank to promote services via MM2H programme

MM2H collaboration: Dr Ng speaking with Bank of China (M) Bhd personal banking department senior executive Janice Tan at its booth at the Malaysian pavilion during the China International Travel Mart in Shanghai.

SHANGHAI: Riding on a wave of Chinese nationals joining the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, five Malaysian companies have signed up with the Bank of China to provide services to their prospective clients.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the cooperation between her ministry, Bank of China and the private sector was an unusual development in promoting the MM2H programme to foreigners. She said the companies could work with the bank to attract its 300,000 high-end customers with savings and assets of US$1mil (RM3.07mil) to US$2mil (RM6.14mil) each to choose Malaysia as their top choice destina-tion of home away from home.

“I am confident that if they promote the programme well and always put their customers first, they will reap the fruits of their labour,” she said after witnessing a joint memorandum of understanding signing ceremony between the bank and the five companies here on Thursday.

The companies, licensed by the ministry as agents of the programme, are Complete Point (MM2H) Sdn Bhd, CK-Ten (MM2H) Sdn Bhd, Synergy Home (MM2H) Sdn Bhd, Sweet Home Garden (MM2H) Sdn Bhd and CLS (MM2H) Sdn Bhd.

Since 2002 until August, Malaysia approved applications from 19,488 foreigners for the MM2H programme. China topped other countries with 3,332 participants, followed by Japan and Bangladesh. Between January and August, 475 participants from China joined the programme, a 257% increase from the corresponding period last year.

On Friday, Dr Ng who was on a two-day official visit to Shanghai attended the opening of the Malaysian pavilion at the China International Travel Mart and paid a courtesy call on Chinese National Tourism Administration Minister Shao Qiwei.

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Malaysia targets two million Chinese tourists

SHANGHAI: Malaysia is targeting two million Chinese tourists for the upcoming Visit Malaysia Year 2014, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

“We received 1.25 million tourists from China last year. This year, we hope we can achieve our target of 1.5 million tourists.

“By 2014, we hope we will receive up to two million Chinese tourists. We really need to collaborate with the provincial tourism bureaus,” she said after opening the Malaysian pavilion at the China International Travel Mart here yesterday.

Dr Ng met senior officials from the Hubei and Henan provincial tourism bureaus over flight connectivity issues between Malaysia and cities in the two provinces.

“We have discussed about flight connectivity with the Hubei tourism bureau and we will now talk more with the interested airlines to establish a direct flight between Wuhan and Malaysian cities like Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu or Langkawi in March next year,” she said.

At a meeting with representatives from Chinese travel agencies, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia X and other Chinese airlines, Tourism Malaysia board of director Datuk Seri Tengku Dr Zainal Adlin hoped that they would work together with the ministry to meet the two million tourists target.
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Malaysia gets China charters

Growing interest in Malaysia among travellers from the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan has prompted travel agents in those markets to commence chartered flights starting December.

M. Wahid, director, Tourism Malaysia South China, told TTG Asia e-Daily that these flights will take off from Chengdu and Kunming to Sabah, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur. He pointed out that Sabah, on the northern side of Malaysia’s Borneo island, has also been gaining much popularity among Chinese travellers from Guangzhou. However, he did not elaborate on the number of chartered flights planned.

“Malaysia is now concentrating on attracting the high-end segment from China,” he said. In the past six months, Malaysia received 560,000 arrivals from mainland China, a six per cent increase compared to the same period in 2010.
-TTG Asia.

A healthy lure for tourists

PETALING JAYA: Foreigners will find Malaysia an attractive place for healthcare as the country offers affordable and quality medical treatment by accredited healthcare providers.

Launching the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Exhibition 2011 in Hong Kong yesterday, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said Malaysia had many highly-trained specialists with recognised qualifications, mostly from Britain, Ireland and the United States. “Many of them have been involved in revolutionary and ground-breaking research which has garnered internationally-acclaimed awards and recognition,” he told visitors to the show.

He added that besides state-of-the-art equipment and treatment, patients from Hong Kong and China would have no problem conversing with doctors as Mandarin, Cantonese and English are all widely spoken. “With a favourable exchange rate, Malaysia has an advantage in terms of cost of care,” said Liow, adding that the country adopted a single pricing policy for private medical treatment where foreigners enjoyed the same rate as locals.

The exhibition, organised by the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) and the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia, featured 17 exhibitors from hospitals and related industry players. Present at the launch were MHTC chief executive officer Dr Mary Wong Lai Lin, Malaysian celebrity Michael Wong, who was named the country's health care travel ambassador, Hong Kong artistes Nat Chan Pak Cheung and Petrina Fung Bo Bo and Malaysia consul-general in Hong Kong Jilid Kuminding.

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Malaysian team heads to South China to promote Penang

A fifty-pax trade delegation from Malaysia, led by Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, has been in Guangzhou since Wednesday to promote the island destination to the South China outbound market. The team, including representatives from the Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents, the Malaysian Association of Hotels, and the Budget Hotel Association, will meet the city mayor of Zhongshan, a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province, as well as provincial leaders.

 

Lim’s press secretary, Cheong Yin Fan, said: “The market in Guangzhou and China has vast potential. Without the China tourism market, it would be difficult to achieve Penang’s aspirations of (achieving) more than 50 per cent of its gross domestic product from the services and tourism sector.” The delegation is also due to attend the China (Guangzhou) International Tourism Expo 2011 following the conclusion of the trade mission. There, the state Tourism Development and Culture Office will promote Penang together with Tourism Malaysia at the Malaysia-Penang pavilion.

 

Specially identified for promotion are Penang’s culinary scene, seascapes, natural hills, and the UNESCO World Heritage-listed city of Georgetown. “Penang offers a unique and yet certain familiarity for Chinese tourists who are comfortable in the culture and language,” Cheong said.

-TTG Asia.

Tourism Malaysia targets 1.25mil tourists from China

KUALA LUMPUR: Tourism Malaysia is targeting 1.25 million tourists from China this year, its acting director-general, Datuk Azizan Noordin, said Saturday.

The public looking for bargains at the Matta Fair at PWTC Saturday

He was confident the target could be achieved, looking at the trend, with 1.13 million tourists from China last year and 1.02 million in 2009. The expected increase in arrivals from China has helped to push the target number of tourists to Malaysia from all over the world to 25 million from 24.6 million last year.

Earlier, Azizan witnessed the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents and the Chinese Muslim Travel Association at the Putra World Trade Centre here. Matta was represented by its president, Datuk Mohd Khalid Harun, and CMTA by its vice president, Edward Zheng. The MOC is aimed at enhancing travel and tourism partnership between Malaysia and China.

Meanwhile, Zheng said 'halal tourism' could be a big factor to increase the inbound and outbound tourist traffic between Malaysia and China. "Halal tourism is not only focusing on halal food but giving the best accommodation for Muslim travellers like a place to pray and a tour to interesting Islamic sites," he said. Zheng said China had more than 30,000 mosques and there are four provinces Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai which are known as the 'Quran Belt'.

Zheng said that Chinese Muslims were interested in coming to Malaysia because the country is famous for its safe environment, the English and Mandarin used, convenient transport, and spectacular culture, and they want to see the life of the Chinese in Malaysia. 

- Bernama

Taiwanese group lauds visa waiver

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s move to waive visas for Taiwanese can attract more tourists, said Taipei Investors Association in Malaysia (TIAM) honorary president Datuk Dr Ting Chung Cheng. “I believe the move is very favourable to our cooperation, especially in economy, trade and tourism,” said the Taiwanese.

Dr Ting added that the trade value between the two countries was RM14bil last year, while tourist arrivals from Taiwan were more than 210,000. “Such figures show that Malaysia is one of Taiwan’s important trading partners and we are thankful to the Malaysian government for the new measure,” he said.

On Friday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Timothy Yang Chin-Tien announced that Malaysia had agreed to give visa-free travel with immediate effect to the Republic. Those who hold a Republic of China (ROC) passport, valid for at least six months with a return or onward airline ticket, will be able to stay in Malaysia for up to 15 days without a visa. Malaysia had offered visa-on-arrival (VOA) to Taiwanese citizens since 2009.

However, the country stopped issuing all landing visas across the board in August last year to curb problems of illegal immigrants from China, India and Bangladesh. Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen recently said the granting of visa-free status would have very positive impact on tourism arrivals. She said the decision to grant visa-free entry for Taiwanese was a reflection of the Government’s trust in frequent travellers from Taiwan. Dr Ng added that the visa exemption took effect from March 14 and was only for Taiwanese businessmen and tourists.
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Malaysia woos Chinese business tourism market

Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) aims to increase business tourism arrivals from China by five per cent this year, to reach 1.12 million delegates over last year's target of 1.07 million. The bureau is banking on corporate meetings, incentives and clan conferences from China to further grow its largest market for business tourism arrivals outside of neighbouring ASEAN countries. MyCEB will thus strengthen its presence at tradeshows such as Incentive Travel & Conventions Meeting in Shanghai and China Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition in Beijing; produce information kits for the Chinese market; and hold roadshows in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

It will also rely on Tourism Malaysia's presence in China for business tourism promotions and lead generation, said MyCEB general manager sales and marketing Ho Yoke Ping. Ho believed that Malaysia could be successful in its Chinese ambitions, despite intense regional and international competition, as the two countries enjoy strong trade and bilateral ties. Cultural and language similarities also make it easier for Chinese meeting planners to organise events in Malaysia. “Malaysia offers excellent value for money, and this is in line with the market trend of wanting higher ROIs,” Ho added.

-TTG Asia.

www.myceb.com.my

Chinese agents go on fam trips to heart of Sabah

The Eastern Malaysian state of Sabah is taking travel agents from Hong Kong and China on familiarisation trips of less-discovered places such as Sandakan and Tawau, in a bid to promote destinations beyond the capital city Kota Kinabalu. It is starting by leading a five-night fam trip for Hong Kong agents this week. This will be followed by similar fam trips for agents from China. Sabah Tourism Board (STB) senior marketing manager, Tay Shu Lan, said the number of arrivals from China (including Hong Kong and Macau) totalled 74,557 for the first nine months of the year, up from 66,887 over the same period last year.

A key reason for the spike was a TVB TV series called Born Rich, which was partly shot in Sabah, said Tay. The Cantonese drama was aired late last year. However, Tay pointed out that some 90 per cent of Chinese visitors were still heading only to Kota Kinabalu, a trend that STB hopes to change by promoting other destinations known for special interests such as diving, wildlife and agro-tourism. Malaysia-based Mayflower Acme Tours manager of international sales for Greater China inbound, K.M. Lam, noted the company was receiving an increasing number of enquiries for Sabah. Lam said: "During key holiday seasons such as China National Day and Chinese New Year, demand is higher than supply."
-TTG Asia.
http://www.sabahtourism.com/

Tourism Malaysia packs luxury for Chinese

TOURISM Malaysia is promoting luxury packages to attract Chinese high-yield tourists to stay for at least five days. Niche products such as golfing, diving and the Malaysia My Second Home programme have been introduced to the Chinese market. Working towards repositioning Malaysia as a high-end holiday destination, Tourism Malaysia is negotiating with Chinese agents to promote luxury holiday packages. These packages include stays at five-star hotels, quality tours and fine cuisine. “The response has been good,” said Tourism Malaysia’s acting director-general, Azizan Noordin.

This year, Malaysia is targeting 1.1 million Chinese (including Hong Kong and Macau) visitors, a 7.3 per cent increase over last year’s arrivals. For the first six months of 2010, Malaysia welcomed 516,160 visitors from China. This makes China the top medium-haul market and the fourth largest tourist arrivals market for Malaysia. Working in Malaysia’s favour is the increase in direct flights and frequencies between Kuala Lumpur and various points in China. In total, the Malaysia-China sector is serviced by 226 flights per week, with a capacity of 50,267 seats. Mayflower deputy general manager, Andy Soo, said with the large seat inventory, the company was able to bring in 5,000 Chinese MICE delegates in two arrivals in the past.
-TTG Asia.

Malaysia to attract halal restaurateurs from China

SHANGHAI: Malaysia welcomes more halal restaurateurs from China to open outlets in Malaysia. Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said she had invited the China Cuisine Association to organise delegations from the halal food industry to visit Malaysia to scout for business opportunities. “I hope the association will send its delegations to participate in our three major food festivals, namely the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival in October; Malaysian Asean Heritage Trail in November and Restaurant & Hawker Food Deliciously 1Malaysia in December,” she said during her meeting with the association’s vice-president Shen Siming over lunch here yesterday.

On Sunday, after officiating the Malaysia Pavilion National Day at the World Expo here, Dr Ng said tourists from China were a high-yield tourism worth tapping. “We have spoken to tour operators to develop very focused tour products. “We know Chinese are high spenders who like to stay in top-class hotels and travel in style; so we are now aiming for this high-end market,” she said.
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HK tourists awed by Malaysia

SENAI: Many tourists from Hong Kong believe that Malaysia is safe and friendly and looked forward to visiting the country again. Student Terrence Lau, 17, said he had a wonderful vacation and was pleased that he visited Sibu Island, Malacca and Kota Tinggi. “I especially enjoyed visiting Kota Tinggi, as I managed to see thousands of fireflies there,” he said. Lau said that this was his first visit to Malaysia and it would leave a lasting impression on him, as the local cuisine was delicious while the locals were friendly and hospitable.

Happy visitors: Woolly (left), Lee (middle) and Lau (right) posing with a couple of friends before their flight out of Johor at the Senai International Airport yesterday.

His mother, Dora Lee, in her 40s, said that the holiday was more than she had initially expected from Malaysia. “The stay in Sibu Island was amazing. “I went snorkelling and petted some deer,” she said, adding that she also enjoyed visiting Malacca as the city was rich in culture and heritage. Lee hopes to come back to Malaysia again within the next two years, and wants to visit Kuala Lumpur as she has heard many interesting facts from her friends about the city.

Meanwhile, student Ko Woolly, 17, said that she loved the local cuisine here as it was spicy and colourful. “Malaysian food is very spicy and unique. “I enjoyed feasting on the curries and gravies,” she said, adding that this was her second visit to the country so far. Woolly, Lee and Lau were part of a group of tourists who visited Malaysia under a special charter flight tour package offered by Option Tours and Travel Sdn Bhd and EGL Tours Ltd.

Option Tours and Travel Sdn Bhd executive director David Tham (pic) said that a total of 1,760 tourists from Hong Kong had purchased the tour package which costs RM2,500 per person. The tourists spent a total of five days touring several states within Malaysia. Tham explained that the travel package, which was the travel agent’s most popular, included a two-night stay in Sibu Island, one-night stay in Malacca and a day trip to Kota Tinggi to watch fireflies.

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Malaysia Eyes Luxury End Of HK & Chinese Travel Market

SHENZHEN, Aug 15 (Bernama) -- With an estimated 17 million tourists from China and Hong Kong having travelled overseas last year, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen wants Malaysia to capture a sizeable slice of this growing market, especially the luxury end. Her latest promotion campaign to Hong Kong and southern China last week yielded some interesting results: there is growing interest in luxury tourism besides art and culture tourism and ecotourism among the well-heeled Chinese tourists. "The demand for luxury tourism has increased for the past few years, especially in China and Hong Kong, as many of their travellers are looking for quality holidays rather than cheap products with poor service. They are often cash rich, time poor but demanding," she told Bernama at the end of her recent promotions. Dr Ng said her ministry recognised the growing importance of high net worth travallers wanting to experience luxurious lifestyles during their travels.

"We must build ourselves up as the beauty of Malaysia and our fascinating heritage allow us to offer a diversity of sophisticated products such as golfing, spa retreats as well as art tourism," she said. Dr Ng said luxury tourism meant that the tour packages must be above RM5,000 each with luxury top-end accommodation, great food and exclusive activities thrown in for the affluent travellers. As for feedback from travel and tour operators in Hong Kong and southern China, she said Malaysia stood a good chance of getting more tourist arrivals from Hong Kong and China this year. In addition to the luxury segment, Dr Ng said Malaysia also hoped to attract tourists from Hong Kong and China in senior citizens tours, ecotourism, shopping, food and homestay packages. "Besides tourism packages, we also hope to attract investors from China to invest in tourism-related products like restaurants or invest in property through the "Malaysia, My Second Home" programme," she disclosed.

As a first step towards creating greater awareness among tourists in Hong Kong and China in the art segment and to further position Malaysia as a tourism hub, she said Malaysia would take part in the Hong Kong International Art and Antiques Fair at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from Oct 3 to 6. Dr Ng also hoped that the on-going 1Malaysia Contemporary Arts Festival and Malaysia Mega Sale Shopping Carnival and a food festival from October until December this year would attract more overseas tourists. Malaysia, she said, would continue to host the International Shoe Festival and F1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix as part of efforts to have many exciting tourism products. Tourism brought in about RM52 billion to the nation's coffers last year from a total of 23.65 million tourist arrivals (2008: 22.05 million visitors).

For 2010, the target is RM54 billion in receipts from a projected 24 million in visitor arrivals. Malaysia was also one of seven countries to have achieved positive growth in tourist arrivals last year when the rest of the world experienced a four per cent cent decline, no thanks to the global economic crisis and H1N1 influenza pandemic. Describing her promotion as successful, Ng added,"We have achieved what we wanted to achieve, which is promoting the new art tourism, as we had met the right people involved in the industry here to inform them that the Malaysian government is keen to develop art tourism." While in Hong Kong, she met various art industry leaders, including the founder of Hong Kong International Fine Art and Antiques Fair, Andy Hei, and the chairman of the China Culture Global Association, Alice Chiu. Dr Ng said Chiu was expected to lead a group of delegates to Malaysia next month and her ministry was looking forward to welcoming them.

Tourism Ministry Urges Airlines To Have Direct Flights To Zhengzhou

ZHENGZHOU, June 14 (Bernama) -- The Tourism Ministry would look into arranging direct flights to Zhengzhou from Malaysia, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen. She said Zhengzhou could act as a transportation hub, which when completed with its high-speed railway facilities, would allow tourists to travel to many other districts in China. "Direct flights will encourage tourists from China to travel to Malaysia and vice versa," she said, adding that Malaysia, meanwhile, could also act as the tourism centre for China tourists who want to travel within the Asean region. "I will urge Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia to open up new routes to fly to Zhengzhou," she told Bernama, here, Sunday.

Dr Ng, who is on a four-day working trip to China, is visiting Guangzhou and Zhengzhou. She held dialogues with local tourism operators and attended the International Mayor's Forum on Tourism (IMFT) in Henan on Friday. Malaysia won the Best Video Award at the IMFT, which is being held here with the theme, "Tourism for Better City Life" and participants from more than 50 cities worldwide to study city tourism. Ng said the ministry targeted to achieve 1.1 million tourist arrivals this year, which would be 10 per cent higher than the target reached last year. She said the ministry would also focus on bilateral investment where Malaysia's tourism operators would be given the opportunity to invest in China and vice versa. Dr Ng disclosed she was satisfied with the results of the trip, including inviting a group of 400 people from China to hold a bicycle exhibition in Malaysia in November.

Tourism Ministry To Focus On Promoting Eco-Tourism - Yen Yen

XUCHANG (China), June 13 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's Tourism Ministry is to focus on promoting eco-tourism in Malaysia as its future tourism development plan, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said here. She said Malaysia had more then 1,000 species of flowering plants which could be developed into an interesting tourism product. "Ecological tourism has a potential market which is yet to be developed and many European tourists are very interested in visiting garden and flower expos," she said, adding that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also supported the idea of promoting ecological tourism in Malaysia.

"Malaysia won a gold medal in its maiden participation in the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show 2010, and this has proven that Malaysian tropical plants can be turned into an attractive tourism product," she said after a meeting with the mayor of the Xuchang Municipal Government, Li Ya, on Saturday. Ng, who is on a four-day working trip to China, is visiting Guang Zhou and Zhengzhou. She had held dialogues with local tourism operators and attended the International Mayors' Forum on Tourism (IMFT) in Henan on Friday. Ng said the ministry would look into the possibility of Malaysia signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Xuchang in conducting garden and flower expo visiting tours. "The ministry will hold the Malaysia International Floral Parade in Putrajaya on July 10 and Xuchang will hold its international flower festival in September this year. "This could be a chance for both countries to conduct bilateral tours to visit these events and encourage China tourists to visit Malaysia and vice versa," she said. Ng also expressed Malaysia's interest to participate in the Xuchang international flower festival to showcase Malaysian flowering plants to China. She also suggested to Li that Xuchang should consider exporting its unique pottery known as Jun porcelain to Malaysia and turn Malaysia into a trading centre for the pottery for Asean countries.

At her meeting with Henan Governor Guo Gengmao earlier, Ng had proposed that Henan consider promoting its historic places to Malaysian tourists while Malaysia would introduce its multicultural uniqueness to China tourists. "Exchanging ideas and suggestions always helps to develop the tourism industry by introducing different packages to be offered to tourists," she said. Ng also emphasised that the development of the tourism industry with other Asean countries as well as China should focus on collaboration rather than competition.

Tourism Ministry To Launch Student Discovery Malaysia Programme In China

GUANGZHOU, June 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is stepping up its tourism promotion in China, a key market, and will launch a Student Discovery Malaysia programme in Shenzhen at the end of the month to attract youngsters. The programme is targeted at 10 to 15-year-olds to visit Malaysia with their parents, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen, who is on a four-day working visit here. "Through the programme, we are introducing educational tours such as discovering the flora and fauna in Malaysia through jungle trekking," she told Bernama on Friday. Tour packages at affordable prices will be included in the programme to attract more families from China to visit Malaysia.

A group of 128 will be the first group to join the programme to visit the Kota Tinggi Resort at end of this month. Dr Ng urged Malaysian resort and tour operators to participate in the programme to help promote the country's tourism industry. "Besides educational tours, the ministry is also trying to link four-wheel drive associations in Malaysia and China to organise tours in Malaysia as our country can be the ideal location for four-wheel adventures," she added. Dr Ng will also visit Zhengzhou city in central Henan province to attend the International Mayors Forum on Tourism today and meet local tour operators.

Malaysia will also participate in the World Tourism Day celebration in Guangzhou city on Sept 27 with 12 booths to promote Malaysian tourism products at the an exhbition. "Some 200 million people are expected to visit the exhibition and the ministry is planning to conduct an investment seminar during the event to bring more investments from China to Malaysia," she added.

Tourism Ministry Would Consider Guangzhou District As An Import Centre For Malaysia Durian

GUANGZHOU, June 10 (Bernama) -- The Tourism Ministry is considering making Guangzhou district a centre for exporting Malaysia durian to China, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen. "Guangzhou is a huge fruit market which has great potential for fruit export and Malaysia is yet to explore this market," she said at a dinner hosted by Guangdong Province Tourism Administration chairman Yang Rongsen here on Thursday. She said the short distance between Guangzhou and Malaysia was ideal for Malaysian durian to be exported to China to ensure that the fruit maintained its freshness. "The ministry will work with the Agriculture and Agro-based Ministry to discuss exporting durian to Guangzhou," she said.

Dr Ng, who is on an four-day working trip to China, is visiting Guangzhou and Zhengzhou. She will hold dialogues with the local tourism operators and attend the International Mayor's Forum on Tourism (IMFT) in Henan on Friday. Dr Ng said that with the increasing tourist arrivals from Guangzhou to Malaysia, Malaysia Airline had doubled its daily flight from Guangzhou to Kuala Lumpur from one flight per day. The Southern Airline in China had also opened up a new route from Guangzhou to Penang with a daily flight, she added. Dr Ng said she was informed by the Guangzhou tourism operators that the new route had received great response the locals. Meanwhile, Yang, in his speech, said Malaysia had emerged as a popular destination for tourists from Guangzhou and the district was looking at working with Malaysia in promoting the tourism industry for both sides. "Exploring the fruit market here by importing delicious fruits such as durian is a great idea in promoting the tourism industry as durian is the favourite fruit of many locals here," he said.