Happy Chinese New Year 2010

Yen Yen: Promote parks as tourists attractions

aichun@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: With nature on our side and the weather devoid of harsh extremes, Malaysia’s local parks and gardens have the potential to become attractive tourism products, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

Community-friendly activities such as weddings, family days, cycling, arts and music can be among the highlights to be held in these green lungs to attract more local and international visitors.

“Our parks can be visited 365 days a year. We are also the world’s 12th largest in terms of biodiversity and we have many parks,” she said after chairing the Parks, Gardens & Flowers in Malaysia Development and Promotion’s first meeting yesterday.

She likened Malaysia’s parks, gardens and flowers to “low hanging fruits” ripe for picking and the attractions would just need to be value-added.

“I’ve also requested that parks and gardens have more activities like arts and music, as well as other interesting programmes.

“Have weddings like (local celebrity) Maya Karin, who held her wedding ceremony in the Forest Reserve Institute Malaysia (FRIM),” she said. (Maya got married in 2008.)

She stressed that people around the world enjoy visiting parks and having such a tourism product would attract international visitors, especially high-yield tourists.

To promote green lungs, a task force called Parks, Gardens and Flowers Tourism Malaysia had been set up, comprising FRIM, state governments, Kuala Lumpur City Hall and the Human Resources Ministry.

“We need a very strong garden maintenance human resource. At the moment, we believe the majority are foreigners who are considered labourers and non-skilled.

“We are going to propose to the Human Resources Ministry to develop a new skill called garden facilitators instead of ‘tukang kebun’.” she said.

黄燕燕：游客2365万人次‧去年旅游带来520亿收益

星洲日报‧2010.02.05

黄燕燕：仿中美大都会 璀璨灯火吸引游客

（莎阿南4日讯）旅游部长拿督黄燕燕说，许多国家都以灯饰作为旅游景点的“卖点”，因此i－城市的灯饰也可以被发挥成为吸引游客的重点之一。

她星期四晚开幕i－城市新年灯饰时说，许多大城市都是靠灯饰来吸引游客，例如上海、重庆、广州、厦门、拉斯维加斯等，因此灯饰是旅游景点不可或缺的重要因素之一，可以带动旅游景点发展。

游客喜欢夜晚逛街

“许多游客喜欢在晚上在街道上逛街、到酒廊消磨时间等，如果大马的旅游景点发展灯饰布置，相信可以吸引更多游客到来。”

她也赞扬i－集团在大马及旅游业准备转型之际扮演积极角色，不但是个知识之城也是旅游景点。

她说，如果i－城市这次所举办的“数码璀璨之城”摄影比赛水平高超的话，考虑把作品带到今年将在上海举办的旅游盛会参展。该盛会去年成功吸引了1700万人次到访。

生态旅游拉住游客

黄燕燕说，去年来大马旅游的游客增加2365万人次（7.2％），为我国带来520亿令吉的收入；今年的目标是要增加至2400万人次，及为大马带来530亿令吉的收入。

“我们也订下目标，要在2015年吸引2700万人次游客到来，以及在2020年可以达到4000万人次的目标。”

吸引重游大马

她说，旅游部希望可以增加游客留在大马的时间，从6.4天增加至8天，此外也发掘更多旅游产品，例如生态旅游、自然旅游等；增加民宿、增加游客重游大马的次数。

“昨天我与旅游业者及相关领域业者研讨会上，也讨论到增加生态旅游的导游，目前有75%游客到大马是要生态旅游；现在城市旅游导游有5000名，生态旅游导游只有2000名。”

Dr Ng: Arrival of foreign tourists increasing

SHAH ALAM: Foreign tourist arrivals are increasing but most are still “cautious” in their spending, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said.

Last year, she said there were 23.65 million foreign tourists arrivals, generating RM52bil in revenue for the country.

Dr Ng said a strategic arrangement was needed to increase the number of tourists in 2010, and ensure that they stayed longer.

She said the tourists stayed in the country on an average of 6.4 days.

“We need to introduce new tourist products to get them to extend their holiday for at least eight days.

“Then we will be able to see them spending more for us to hit our target of RM53bil this year,’’ she said after launching the Oriental Digital of Lights “lightscape theme park” at i-City in Section 7.

Dr Ng said last year, there were 17% repeat visitors to the country, compared to Thailand’s 47%.

She added that i-City theme park had the potential to be promoted as an after-dark tourist attraction, saying it was an interesting product for the Klang Valley and Selangor.

Tourism Ministry Aims To Make Tourists Stay Longer, Spend More

SHAH ALAM, Feb 4 (Bernama) — Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said Thursday night her ministry aimed to make tourists stay longer and spend more when they visit Malaysia so as to generate more revenue for the country.

For this year, she said the ministry targeted 24 million tourist arrival compared to the 23.5 million tourist who came to last year.

She said the ministry hoped earnings from tourism for this year would increase to RM53 billion from RM52 billion in 2009.

Dr Ng said this after launching I-Bhd’s Oriental Digital Lights Celebrations at the company’s integrated technology township, I -City, which spans over 29 hectares in Section 7 here.

At present, she said, foreign tourists stay on average 6.4 days and that the ministry aimed to raise this figure to average eight days.

– BERNAMA

聖淘沙綜合娛樂城開幕 黃燕燕：惠及大馬

（莎阿南5日訊）旅遊部長拿督斯里黃燕燕認為，新加坡聖淘沙綜合娛樂城的開幕，並不會影響我國的的旅遊業，反而會為我國帶來更多的遊客。

她說，隨著娛樂城的開幕，會有更多的遊客到新加坡去，而他們也可到柔佛州旅遊。

“因此，我們必須策劃更多的節目來吸引遊客。”

她今日在I-City推介農曆新年數碼燈光及攝影展后，在記者會上發表談話。出席者包括I-CITY總執行長尤芳洲和副執行主席林金煌。

她說，我國目前有大約5000名城市導遊及2000名生態導遊，而75%到我國的遊客都是參與生態旅遊，因此應多栽培生態導遊。

她指出，以往都是由導遊協會自行培訓導遊，但他們的成績並不理想，她不排除日後將由旅遊部直接培訓，加強導遊的素質。

另一方面，黃燕燕說，旅遊巴士及長途巴士的車險都是屬於同一類別，旅遊巴士鮮少發生意外但長途巴士卻頻頻發生意外，這對旅遊巴士很不公平。

“我會將這項課題帶入財政部，重新檢討這項制度。”

Fund only for those who excel, says Ng

KUALA LUMPUR: The ability of local authorities to maintain tourist attractions and products will be the main consideration in the disbursement of allocations, said Tou­rism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

“Applications from all states for the development of tourist attractions totalled RM2bil. But we only have RM900mil allocated to us under the Ninth Malaysia Plan,” she said.

Speaking to reporters after the ministry’s monthly assembly at the Malaysia Tourism Centre here yesterday, Dr Ng said she looked forward to higher tourist arrivals this year.

“We will be introducing two new products, the Malaysia Inter­national Shoes Festival and the Contemporary Arts Festival that will take place in July. We will also be having the International Floral Parade around the same time,” she said.

Dr Ng said the ministry would be reviewing and relocating some overseas tourism offices this year in line with the changing tourism trends.

“We are now looking to relocate our tourism office in Johannesburg to Istanbul. It is a tourist hub for Europe and MAS has direct flights from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur,” she said.

She added that 44 charter flights would be arriving in various Ma­­laysian destinations carrying tourists from China, Taiwan and South Korea.

“Many of these flights are going straight to Kota Kinabalu. We are developing direct destinations and we hope these flights will eventually fly here regularly if they are popular,” she said.

On a separate issue, Dr Ng said she hoped that all MCA leaders would attend the MCA Chinese New Year open house.

However, she said that she would not be persuading anyone to attend the function, saying that “everyone has grown up.”

She was commenting on the move by vice-president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and his faction to boycott all programmes organised by the current leadership.

“It is an MCA Chinese New Year celebration, not the president’s or deputy president’s. I would not make such a call (to boycott),” Dr Ng who is also MCA vice-president said.

旅游部擬资助各州新指南‧拨款胥视管好旅游设施

星洲日报‧2010.02.04

Tourism Ministry To Relocate Some Overseas Offices To Meet Demand

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 (Bernama) — The Tourism Ministry will relocate some of its overseas offices and officers to accommodate current demand, Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said Wednesday.

“This year, we are reviewing to relocate some of the tourism officers and offices overseas. We are looking at the changing trend, the number of tourists’ growth,” she told reporters after attending the ministry’s monthly gathering at the Malaysia Tourism Centre (Matic), here.

She said that among others, the ministry was looking at relocating its tourism office in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Istanbul, Turkey.

“This is because Malaysia Airlines has a direct flight between Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul, and the city has also become a tourism hub for Europe,” she said.

Dr Ng said this was in line with the ministry’s efforts to draw more tourists from Europe to Malaysia.

She also said that in view of the Chinese New Year on Feb 14 and 15, Malaysia would receive 44 charter flights from North Asia and East Asia.

“These flights are expected to bring 3,760 tourists from South Korea, 3,590 from China and 2,527 from Taiwan. Thirty of the flights will be to Kota Kinabalu and the rest to Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Kuantan, Johor, Penang and Langkawi.

“We are developing new direct destinations. We hope these charter flights will eventually be converted to regular flights,” she said.

– BERNAMA