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Malaysia Explores Tourism Market in China
Malaysia's Vice-Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism, Dato' Dr. Ng Yenyen said in Tianjin recently that China is a large and rapidly expanding tourism market and that Malaysia is hard at work to get even more Chinese to visit her country.
The vice-minister made the remarks at a meeting with the local tourism industry and the press.
She is leading a Malaysian tourism promotion delegation in China, which made stops in Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao before coming to Tianjin.
Tourism is one of the most important industries of Malaysia. It produced 11 percent of the tropical country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2000, next only to the manufacturing sector.
Malaysia has done a lot to expand the Chinese market since 1999. The number of Chinese tourists to Malaysia increased from 190,000 in 1999 to 430,000 in 2000. China has become Malaysia's fourth- largest tourism source.
The vice-minister noted that Chinese people now can afford to travel abroad.
The Chinese government's policy to promote tourism during the May 1 and National Day holidays also gives Chinese more opportunities for a short-term trips overseas, she said.
Malaysia is focusing its promotion activities on several key Chinese cities, so that more Chinese will know about Malaysia. Malaysia has also taken measures to attract more Chinese tourists, including opening special lines for senior citizens and children.
Malaysia is among the first tourist destinations approved by the Chinese government. So far millions of Chinese have visited the country over the past few years.
To cope with the expanding Chinese market, the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing and its Consulate General in Shanghai have both opened a culture and tourism division in February.
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