Tourism Ministry must be more creative

Source : The Star Online
Classified : Opinion

BUDGET 2013 contains goodies to benefit all Malaysians, young and old. Even the tourism sector will benefit as the Prime Minister announced that tour operators handling at least 750 foreign tourists or 1,500 local tourists annually would enjoy a three-year income-tax exemption.

However, I am a bit confused by the statement from the Tourism Ministry about bringing international and world-class attractions into the country. We have our own tourism venues, and we should continue to promote these locations to lure local and foreign tourists.

Why should we bring in international attractions which will last for only a few days or weeks, before they pack up and return home?

Besides, if we want to attract foreign tourists by selling international acts (like acrobatics from China), the foreign tourists may as well visit China where they will be able to see more of these attractions.

We should be proud of our local attractions, and we should continue to promote our unique and cultural attributes.

The Tourism Ministry should in fact work together with our local tourist attractions by engaging local professionals with vast knowledge on how to improve our presentation to foreign tourists.

Our Tourism Ministry should be more creative. It’s time to look at long-term plans for the tourism industry.

CHAN POH AIK

Petaling Jaya



My Feedback on above Opinion

For me, Malaysia has whole package of tourism. About bringing international and world-class attractions into the country is not a bad idea. Tourism is not all about foreign tourist coming to Malaysia, but also include local tourist.

Sure we can find acrobatic things in China! And Tomyam in Thailand, Curry in India, Sushi in Japan!
The Unique of Malaysia is we can have bits of everything in here.

Basicly, International attraction surely benefit local tourist & business.