‘BUDGET CUT WON’T AFFECT VMY 2020’
Active promotion of country being done at travel marts, exhibitions, says Mohammadin
DATUK Mohammadin Ketapi dove into the deep end when he was assigned to head the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry almost a year ago.
Mohammadin’s last post before becoming a federal minister was in 1990, as an assistant minister to the Sabah deputy chief minister.
With no prior background in culture and tourism, Mohammadin had a challenging task at hand, and has only eight months before Visit Malaysia Year 2020 (VMY 2020) kicks off.
His ministry, however, faces limitations due to budget cuts as it was not given priority in the 2019 Budget.
Mohammadin, during an interview to review his ministry’s oneyear performance, nevertheless expressed optimism, giving his assurance that promotions for VMY 2020 would not be compromised.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the ministry’s overall performance, the 62-year-old answered “yes”.
“There are constraints. We had to cut down spending on advertising and promotional activities. But this does not affect our VMY 2020 promotions,” he said on Monday.
Over the past year, he said his ministry had scored a number of achievements.
One of his biggest achievements, he said, was the distribution of half the tourism tax revenue to state governments.
The move enabled state governments to receive more revenue, estimated at over RM50 million, which was distributed late last month.
The tourism industry is one of the biggest contributors to the economy. In 2017, it accounted for 14.9 per cent or RM201.4 billion of the country’s national gross income.
Last year, the country saw a drop in international tourist arrivals from 25.9 million in 2017 to 25.8 million, but the per capita expenditure of tourists rose 2.9 per cent from RM3,166 to RM3,257.
To boost tourist arrivals, Mohammadin said the government had provided a matching grant of RM100 million for private companies to promote and market international tourism.
One of his immediate strategies to boost tourist arrivals is to promote Malaysia through travel marts and exhibitions.
“We have been attending travel marts, such as the World Travel Market London, International Tourism Trade Fair Madrid, and the latest one being ITB Berlin (Internationale Tourismus-Borse Berlin), where we were the official partner country.
“We also invite international writers and journalists to come to Malaysia and write about their experiences here,” said Mohammadin, who is Silam member of parliament.
Among his achievements, he said, was maintaining Malaysia’s ranking as one of the best tourist destinations last year, with Kuala Lumpur listed in the top 10 most visited cities in the world.
He also said this record was an indicator that Malaysia was on the right track to achieve sustainable growth in the tourism industry, stressing that his ministry was working hard to strengthen it.
“This is so we can accomplish our target of 30 million tourist arrivals with a tourism revenue of RM100 billion in 2020, in line with the VMY 2020 campaign.”
His ministry had succeeded in gazetting a host of items in the national heritage list, and getting Melaka performance art Dondang Sayang recognised as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
The last time Malaysia was given this much sought-after recognition was in 2005 for the Mak Yong.
Some of the items gazetted as a national heritage include 149 songs written and sung by the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee, and the Gombak Selangor Quartz Ridge, which is the world’s longest quartz ridge heritage site, spanning 14km.
“It is important to gazette these heritage items as it brings a positive impact across societies, and can generate economic growth through heritage tourism products,” he added.
He welcomed cooperation from all parties, particularly from the private sector, to not only promote tourist attractions, but also the country’s arts and culture.
“I also hope that we can surpass our target for VMY 2020, especially with the partnerships and collaborations from all.”