KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 – Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that the Malaysia’s tourism was base as economic of the fundamentals which are still in strong and should be utilized through various channels to attract more tourists to come over to the country.
The Prime Minister listed the country famous for its hospitalilti and welcoming culture, natural heritage, diversity of traditions and now, especially, more value for money allows tourists to experience a wealth of experience in Malaysia compared to other destinations, in terms of exchange rates.
“All of this has been the selling point that needs to be further intensified and spread through all channels to increase the number of tourists,” he said at an event entitled ‘An hour with the Prime Minister’ organized by the Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) here on Thursday.
Najib said the government was aware that the competition is fierce, with other countries also strive to attract tourists to their countries. He said to make Malaysia more competitive tourism sector is to incentives which may need to be reviewed and immigration issues such as granting visas on arrival and visa fees as well as an electronic visa needs to be reviewed to facilitate tourists into the country.
Najib said the airline and ports should also add direct service and relations, both of which are related to increased tourist arrivals. He suggested that the Cabinet Committee on Tourism to meet in the near future to resolve inter-ministerial issues yet to be resolved.
“In the meantime, the industry itself needs to believe in the basic tour Malaysia and in their own way to market these principles to help boost the industry. In the same time, the MATTA and its members have a role to play in helping to tell the truth about the country to overseas markets,” he said.
He said that this should be done so that the misconceptions and false negative outlook due to the fact which mainly spread through social media that can be corrected and not be unduly worried tourists to visit the country. The Prime Minister noted that official figures show the number of tourist arrivals to Malaysia declined by 8.6 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year.
That situation is due to several factors, many beyond the control of Malaysia, Najib said, while making an example of the tragedy suffered two crashes Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia as well as floods. He said the global economic patterns also affect the results of tourists to choose which city or country as their destination.
He said it would be fair to note that the uncertainties in the global economy had a negative impact not only for Malaysia but also other ASEAN countries. Malaysia was ranked 12th in terms of international tourist arrivals last year, which is about 27.4 million arrivals. He further said that the industry players should strive to meet the expectations of tourists is constantly changing by making the sector is flexible enough to be adapted to the change.
