Steps taken to cushion blow to tourism

O Strategies identified by ministry to maintain high visitor arrivals

PETALING JAYA: The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry has identified several strategies to ensure tourist arrivals into the country remain high, despite the global novel coronavirus outbreak.

This was discussed and decided at the first Tourism Recovery Action Committee (TRAC) meeting yesterday, chaired by Tourism Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi and attended by various government agencies and industry players.

“Recognising the importance of the industry to the country’s social and economic development, the ministry has formulated short term ‘quick wins’ and long term strategies to help Malaysia in facing the grave global situation.

“The ministry is committed to ensuring that the tourism sector in Malaysia remains stable and continues to move forward, despite being faced with a situation that is beyond our control,” a Tourism Ministry statement said.

“These strategies that are formulated are seen as capable of increasing the number of tourists from various countries, and can enhance our tourism industry by making it more resilient in the long term.”

On Jan 28, Mohamaddin said he was confident that the Wuhan virus outbreak that has claimed hundreds of lives, would not affect the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign target of attracting 30 million tourists by the end of the year. He said the government would not revise its target figure.

Recently, he announced a restructure of the campaign that would focus on Europe, the Central and Middle East and Southeast Asia.