Malaysia's Tourism Likely To Maintain 9.6 Per Cent GDP Contribution This Year

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian tourism industry is expected to maintain its 9.6 per cent contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year driven by campaigns such as 'Go Domestic' and 'Cuti-cuti 1Malaysia Dekat Je'. "All this while we have been at 9.6 per cent (contribution). We believe we can maintain that, but if the overall number of tourism enterprises expands, that would be better. "When there are more enterprises, the GDP contribution from the tourism sector will increase," Tourism Malaysia director-general Mirza Mohammad Taiyab told reporters after the launch of Mita Tourism Fair 2016 here Friday. The three-day event is organised by the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (Mita) with the support of Tourism Malaysia. This year, the industry projects 66.8 million local tourists with US$11.07 billion (RM45.7 billion, US$1 = RM4.12) in domestic tourism revenue, up from last year's 63.7 million tourists with RM43.5 billion revenue. The Mita Tourism Fair 2016 promises visitors exciting domestic holiday offers by 150 display booths put up by 100 tourism operators to market their products which targets 20,000 visitors and sales worth RM10 million. On foreign tourist arrivals, Mirza said, they were also expected to increase this year with many foreigners taking advantage of the more favourable foreign exchange rate to make Malaysia their tourist destination of choice especially from Singapore, Indonesia and China. As of September 2015, foreign tourist arrivals stood at 19.05 million compared to the previous year's target of 28 million, he said, adding the number was expected to increase to 30.4 million this year. --BERNAMA