Malaysian Tourism Growing From Strength Strength
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www.nst.com In 1972, one man decided to give Malaysian tourism its due recognition. Till today, Tan Sri Mohd Taib Mahmud, who is the Chief Minister of Sarawak, is known as the architect of our tourism industry.
With the enactment of new laws came the Tourist Development Corporation (TDC) and its new director-general, Datuk Baharuddin Musa, who replaced Osman.
The TDC not only promoted the country abroad but also worked on the various tourist infrastructures and products such as motels in Kuantan and Terengganu and Club Med in Cherating.
In 1987, former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad saw the potential in tourism and gave it the much-needed government backing.
Making it his pet project, he formed the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism and TDC came under its purview. Datuk Sabaruddin Chik was its first Minister.
For 12 years, the Ministry promoted the country abroad under the tagline “To Know Malaysia Is To Love Malaysia”.
Tourist arrivals increased but because of problems such as the Middle-East war, coxsackie outbreak and the Asian financial crisis, the result was disappointing.
In 1992, the TDC was replaced by the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, more popularly known as Tourism Malaysia. According to industry players, the best thing happened to Malaysian tourism in 1999 when Tan Sri Kadir Sheikh Fadzir and Abdullah were appointed Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister and Tourism Malaysia’s director-general respectively.
Two heads were better than one, they thought, and they were proven right.
The new tagline for international promotions was changed to the catchy “Malaysia, Truly Asia”.
Abdullah explains: “We chose ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’ because we are a multi-racial, multi-cultural country and our biggest selling point is people, culture and food. We don’t have The Great Wall of China, the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal but we have multi-ethnicity, which is most attractive. This was the reason we chose this tagline from the hundreds of thousands that we were mulling over.”
For domestic promotions, the tagline was “Cuti-Cuti Malaysia”.
Arrivals increased by leaps and bounds. There was no looking back as tourism became the second biggest revenue earner in foreign receipts after manufacturing.
In 2004, the Culture, Arts and Tourism Ministry was divided into the Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry and the Tourism Ministry. Tourism Malaysia then came under the Tourism Ministry, which was given the mandate to build and promote the industry further.
The success reaped prompted the Ministry and Tourism Malaysia to declare 2007 as Visit Malaysia Year, the third held so far.
The first was held in 1990 and brought in six million visitors while the second in 1994 saw some 7.46 million tourists. This time, the target is 20.1 million visitors and RM45 billion in revenue.
“We have come a long way but is this enough or do we want to achieve more?” asks Abdullah. “Should we play the numbers game or should we worry about getting repeat tourists who can sustain the industry without us having to fork out too much for promotional activities?”
At present, only 30 per cent of arrivals comprise repeat visitors and Abdullah says the figure should be 50 per cent or more like what the other countries in the region are enjoying.
“Our service industry needs to be improved, along with the other areas. Malaysians must look in the mirror and decide whether we want to be serious about tourism or not.
“We should walk the talk and not be interested in numbers only. If tourism is to become an industry to be reckoned with, we have to enhance product appeal and look beyond 2007.”
With new and ambitious players in the region, Malaysians must realise it is now no longer about Jalan Masjid India or Chow Kit but also bigger and better things.
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World Islamic Tourism Mart / Malaysia
WITM 2012 InCoMTHU Conference will feature quality and world renown speakers not only from Malaysia but from around the globe. In its 6th Year, the WITM InCoMTHU Conference 2012 will have speakers fro (16/05/2012)
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