Malaysia can’t get enough of VMY 2007
BANGKOK –Malaysia has defended its decision to extend Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) 2007 until August 31, 2008.
Fellow ASEAN destination Indonesia has recently launched Visit Indonesia Year 2008.
Further complicating the issue is that Malaysia has introduced a state component to VMY by launching Visit Kedah Year, Visit Kelantan Year and Visit Terengganu Year.
“This allows the states to look more critically at their products, including events,” said Dato Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, director general of Tourism Malaysia.
He pointed to international visitor arrival figures of 20.8 million in 2007 as evidence of the success of Tourism Malaysia marketing.
“Our visitor numbers have increased four fold in a 10-year period,” he said.
“We have spent a lot of time and resources to put Malaysia tourism in the position it is today. Many other countries would be very happy with these visitor figures,” he added.
Singapore continues to be the biggest source marker for Malaysia, but Indonesia has overtaken Thailand in second place.
“Thailand has slipped because of political uncertainty in the country last year and the troubles in the south of the country,” said Taiyab.
China has overtaken Japan as the fifth biggest source of visitors to Malaysia with 544,100 arrivals in 2007.
“The Japanese market is interesting,” said the director general. “Growth has slowed in traditional markets for Japanese visitors, such as Singapore, Bali and Australia.
“There is an ageing population in Japan, and it is harder to get people to come our way. And the office ladies are not travelling in the way they once did.
“”We need new ways to attract the Japanese market but I am not expecting any sudden miracles.”
Tourism Malaysia also revealed that it would target markets in North Africa to take advantage of the growing influence of Middle East carriers in connecting Africa with Asia through the Gulf region.
by Ian Jarrett
Ian Jarrett
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