KUCHING: Tourism Malaysia is targeting to achieve 30 million arrivals and RM100 billion in tourist receipts from the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign.
Tourism Malaysia director general Datuk Musa Yusof said this while delivering his speech for Malaysia’s Mega Familiarisation Programme at Riverside Majestic Hotel on Friday night.
“The federal government, state governments, the public and private sector as well as the general population in Malaysia are thrilled and excited to welcome tourists during this campaign.
“To achieve this target, Tourism Malaysia is doubling the efforts for local and international promotions, which we have done since the early 2018.
“New promotional strategies have been implemented to drive Malaysia’s tourism industry in order to position it as one of the country’s leading sources of revenue and to contribute significantly to the socio-economic development.
“As we are aware, social media is one of the best platforms for promoting Malaysia and as of June 20, 2019, we have 3.3 million Facebook followers, 76,684 Instagram followers, 422,632 Twitter followers and 45.7 million views on YouTube.
“We have also initiated various smart partnerships with our industry players as you can see in today’s programme. We partnered with Malaysia Airlines to bring some of the Mega Fam participants to Malaysia.
“This year, we have a line-up of various international events such as World Tourism Conference 2019 with the theme ‘Beyond Tourism, Beyond Expectations’ in Kuala Lumpur from Aug 26-28, 2019; Royal Flora Flower and Garden Show from Aug 31 till Sept 8, 2019,” he elaborated.
Musa also provided an update on Malaysia’s latest tourism news.
“As a result of strategic initiatives and other promotional efforts, in 2018, we managed to record 25.8 million international tourist receipts amounting to RM84.1 billion.
“Additionally, in the first five months of this year, Malaysia recorded a positive tourist arrivals growth of 4.8 per cent, registering a total of 10,954,014 tourist arrivals compared to 10,454,447 in the same period last year.
“While Malaysia is known as a multi-cultural destination that offers diverse cultural experiences, we also wish to create a more meaningful holiday experience through experiential tours as these provide tourists with a more in-depth understanding and engagement with the local people and communities, which will create stronger ties and lasting memories for all.
“We are also pleased to welcome some of the new tourist attractions that have opened recently, namely Desaru Coast and Sealife at Legoland in Johor, and multiple indoor entertainment parks in shopping malls across the country,” he added.
