Business events to help Malaysia achieve tourist arrivals target
Published on: Thursday, September 01, 2022
By: Bernama
.jpg "Business events to help Malaysia achieve tourist arrivals target")
Since the reopening of borders in April, more than two million tourists have arrived in Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur: The business events segment of the tourism industry will help Malaysia achieve its new target of attracting 9.2 million visitors to the country this year, said tourism, arts and culture minister Nancy Shukri.
These tourists are expected to spend RM26.8 billion during their stay in the country.
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Nancy said 79 business events are in the calendar for the second half of 2022 and these include the Malaysia Business Events Week and World Tourism Conference (WTC 2022) in Sabah.
Besides that, she said, aggressive campaigns to increase tourist arrivals from India and Brunei are seen as efforts that will help to boost the country’s tourism sector.
“We are optimistic and confident that we will reach this target. For example, this month itself Malaysia will receive around 500 tourists from India,” she told a press conference here, today.
Earlier, Nancy witnessed the sigining of a memorandum between Tourism Malaysia and Qatar Airways that will see a collaboration between the two parties to extend networking and strengthen strategic cooperation.
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Nancy said Malaysia is also looking forward to the reopening of China’s borders in October given the position of the people’s republic as the biggest contributor to international tourist arrivals to Malaysia so far.
“We are optimistic of seeing higher tourist arrivals especially with the country’s easing of Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs), making Malaysia one of the most hassle-free countries for travellers to visit,” she said.
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Nancy pointed out that the country has surpassed the initial target of two million international tourist arrivals since the reopening of borders in April, with RM8.6 billion in tourism receipts.
Thus, she said, the ministry has revised the target to 9.2 million international arrivals this year.
Touching on the collaboration with Qatar Airways, Nancy said the objective is to further strengthen Malaysia’s appeal as a preferred travel destination among travellers in the Middle East, Europe, and the US.
“I strongly believe that this will help to increase the air traffic flow, from the medium-haul and long-haul markets to Malaysia, while providing a five-star experience to tourists, who choose Malaysia as a travel destination through the service offered by Qatar Airways,” she added.
The memorandum was signed by Tourism Malaysia director-general Zainuddin Abdul Wahab and Qatar Airways country manager Muzammil Mohamad.
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