A diver wearing a Santa Claus outfit feeds fish inside a tank at the Aquaria KLCC in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 16, 2014. — AFP: The tourism authorities here have yet to finalise their preparations with the private sector to welcome next year’s Visit Malaysia Year 2020.
Tourism, Culture and Arts Deputy Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik said the final programme line-up and marketing campaign will be presented to the Prime Minister in April.“We are targeting affluent and quality tourists, that is why our primary focus is to push our culture to the tourists,“ he said at a press conference after launching the culture and arts activity calendar.
He added that the Ministry is targeting 30 million tourists and to earn some RM100 billion in tourism revenue for 2020. Meanwhile, Muhammad Bakhtiar said tourist arrivals in 2018 is currently at 25.8 million, which was a similar number to the tourist arrivals in 2017, which stood at 25.9 million.“With Singapore, they are discouraged to come over due to the congestion at the causeway, while Brunei mainly had issues during the port of entry to Malaysia, and that they receive fantastic offers to travel overseas elsewhere,“ he said.
He added that the ministry’s focus is to improve on tourists on the medium to long haul markets, which meant they will stay longer in Malaysia and spend more here.