Cuti-Cuti Malaysia’s ‘Jom Dive’ campaign offers attractive scuba-diving packages

KUALA LUMPUR: Holiday-goers can now enjoy scuba-diving activities and explore the natural treasures of marine life through special packages offered under the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia’s ‘Jom Dive!’ campaign, said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.

She said the Tourism Malaysia’s latest campaign, being run in collaboration with the Malaysia Scuba Diving Association until this May 31, would be offering special discounts for those wishing to get their scubadiving licence, as well as various attractive tourism packages.

Nancy said the effort was to encourage Malaysians to visit islands in the country and enjoy the diversity of marine treasures.

“A total of 1,000 scuba-diving packages are being offered based on the ‘first-come, firstserved’ basis and the terms and condition set, besides a discount of RM450 for every purchase of packages priced at RM1,000 and above in a single receipt.

“It is hoped that the campaign would increase the people’s confidence in travelling, and revitalise the domestic tourism sector by maximising the use of existing resources,” she said in a statement yesterday.

For further information about this campaign, the public could visit the Tourism Malaysia website www.malaysia.travel, or the platform www.xtvt.com.my.

Meanwhile in a separate statement, Nancy said the Finance Ministry had approved the resumption of the special allocation totalling RM3.08 million for the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Fund (Gamelan), to carry out its programmes throughout this year.

She said the Gamelan programme, which was introduced on July 9, 2019 with an allocation of RM5 million, was postponed last year due to the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) on March 18, 2020.

Nancy said the ministry, through Tourism Malaysia, would continue to provide funds for promotion and marketing campaigns of both local and international tourism sectors, to increase the number of tourist arrivals to Malaysia.

She said the Gamelan guidelines had also been improved, in line with the post-Covid-19 new norms to re-activate the severely affected tourism, arts and culture sectors by taking into account the digital tourism promotion aspect.

“The allocation ceiling per company has been raised from RM200,000 to RM300,000. The allocation for promotion efforts both locally and abroad has also been increased to RM20,000 and RM30,000, respectively,” she added.

Nancy said the industry players eligible to apply for Gamelan would include registered tourism agencies and associations; hotels; shopping associations; community-based tourism; and also clubs or associations promoting special niche segments and related tourism activities. — Bernama