MALAYSIA'S TOURISM MINISTRY CONFIDENT OF ACHIEVING TARGET

From Jocelyn Ann Dragon

TOKYO, Feb 6 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's Tourism Ministry is confident of
drawing 430,000 Japanese tourists to Malaysia this year despite the global
economic uncertainty.

Its minister Azalina Othman Said said the ministry expected greater
challenges this year due to the economic uncertainty and as such, had
set a conservative figure of 430,000 Japanese tourist arrivals this year.

Malaysia recorded the highest number of tourist arrivals from Japan last
year with 433,462, an increase of 17.9 per cent over the figure in 2007.

Azalina said the Japanese contributed to the 22.05 million tourist arrivals
last year, surpassing the 21.5 million target set.

"We accept the fact that the economic slowdown can affect tourist arrivals,
but Malaysia has the edge when it comes to budget and value-for money travel,"
she said.

Azalina was speaking to reporters after attending a luncheon with the Japan
Association of Travel Agents (JATA) and Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), here,
Friday.

In her speech at the luncheon, Azalina said with Japan's travel industry's
support and cooperation, the ministry hoped to make Malaysia a top destination
for the Japanese.

She said the ministry's strategies in attracting the Japanese market would
focus on promoting leisure tours, especially among Japanese women in their
20's to 40's, who were currently the market leaders in the Japanese outbound
travel.

Azalina said another area that the ministry would be focusing this year was
the student market, in the hope of introducing Kuala Lumpur as another option to
those planning school excursions.

"We are also eyeing Japan's 12 million baby boomers, who are reaching
retirement age, for the long-stay programme in Malaysia, better known as
Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H)."

She said new posts had been created by Tourism Malaysia where three regional
directors were appointed to oversee three regions -- the Middle East, North
Asia/East Asia and Europe/Americas.
-- BERNAMA