39% rise in tourist arrivals achievable — Tourism M’sia
LABUAN: Tourism Malaysia’s (TM) forecast of 39 per cent increase in tourist arrivals or 36 million tourist receipts reaching RM168 billion is achievable with well-planned programs and promotions in place.
Tourism Malaysia Visit Year 2020 Head of Secretariat Datuk Dr Ammar Abd Ghapar said Malaysia is still among the favourite destinations of foreign tourists especially those from Europe, Middle-East, India and China.
“We are optimistic the number of tourist arrival will increase compared to Visit Malaysia 2014, which augurs well for our tourism development sector,” he said at the Visit Malaysia 2020 Media and Industry Player Briefing yesterday.
He said the role of industry players was vital in ensuring that Visit Malaysia 2020 is a success.
“Based on the history of visit Malaysia programs, we have seen a jump in tourist arrivals, thus helping to generate revenue for the country’s coffer. As such, we need everyone in the industry to chip in,” he said.
Dr Ammar said the attractive tourism promotion campaigns and packages from the industry players including airline companies are vital to help Tourism Malaysia realise its objective.
He said Tourism Malaysia was confident in the increase of Chinese tourists to two million surpassing the target of 1.2 million previously.
“However we are still far behind Thailand which has recorded 10 million tourist arrivals from China, therefore, we must not neglect the huge market,” he said.
Dr Ammar also said the tourism tax was important to help continue Tourism Malaysia’s promotion campaigns.