LABUAN, Mar 31 – Tourism Malaysia is confident that its forecast of 39% or 36 million visitor arrival and RM168 billion earnings in tourism receipts for 2020 is achievable with well-planned programmes and promotions.
Its Visit Malaysia 2020 secretariat chief Datuk Dr Ammar Abd Ghapar said Malaysia was still among the favourite destinations for foreign tourists especially from Europe, Middle-East, India and China.
“We are optimistic that the number of tourist arrival will increase compared to Visit Malaysia 2014; that augurs well for our tourism development sector,” he said at a Visit Malaysia 2020 Media and Industry Players Briefing today. He said the role of industry players was vital in ensuring success for Visit Malaysia 2020.
“Based on the history of Visit Malaysia programmes, we have seen the jump in tourist arrivals, thus helping to generate revenue for our country’s coffers; as such, we need everyone in the industry to chip in,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said Tourism Malaysia was also confident about an increase in 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. — Bernama
