MALAYSIA SHARES SECRETS TO INCREASED NUMBER OF TOURIST ARRIVALS

From Kristy Inus

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- Strategic planning - that's the key
to Malaysia's ability to record the highest increase of tourist arrivals
compared with its Asean counterparts last year despite the global economic
downturn.

During the press conference by Asean tourism ministers and their Japan,
Korea, China and India counterparts, Malaysia's Tourism Minister Dr
Ng Yen Yen told foreign and local journalists that her ministry was aware of how
the global scenario could have impacted domestic tourism and decided to tackle
the issue immediately.

"I can tell you that it did not simply happen, but because of (a) strategic
plan. We started to get worried in May and June (last year), so we thought of a
specific strategy, (adopting) a 24-hour crisis management outlook.

"With this approach, we took immediate action on whatever affected us," she
said in reply to a question on the key factors that could have contributed to
Malaysia recording a 7.2 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in 2009.

She cited the Influenza A(H1N1) outbreak that hit the world last year, but
Malaysia ensured that the necessary precautionary measures were taken so as not
to scare tourists away.

She said working together and leveraging Asean as one entity also helped
to boost tourist arrivals.

"When the (Suvarnabhumi) Bangkok Airport faced closure due to the incidents
(demonstrations), we took action by diverting tourists to Malaysia so that they
didn't have to cancel their trips. We did this at no (extra) charge, but we knew
they had the spending power.

"We do not wish tourists who come to the Asean region to be inconvenienced
by such incidents, as we can help each other and shift the tourists to another
Asean member state.

"We don't have to look at each other as competitors but as collaborators."
Therefore, she said, it was important to promote Asean repeatedly and
create awareness of the bloc as one regional entity, especially among the
younger generation.

-- BERNAMA