Illustrative image (Photo: Internet) Hanoi (VNA) - Malaysia hopesto meet its target of welcoming a record 30 million tourists in 2020 by redirectingits marketing efforts to local and other markets as the number of visitors fromChina has dropped.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19)outbreak occurred at a bad time, as Malaysia is pushing its "VisitMalaysia 2020" programme to stimulate its stuttering economy, an tourismofficial said on February 19.
Tourism accounts for 11.8 percent ofMalaysia's gross domestic product (GDP), with 28 million foreign visitorscoming to the Southeast Asian country last year, 11 percent of them from China.
While numbers on tourist arrivals forJanuary aren't yet available, Malaysia has imposed a temporary ban on visitorsfrom Chinese provinces placed on lockdown by the Chinese government, in a bidto stem the spread of the coronavirus. Malaysia has reported 22 confirmed casesso far.
Musa Yusof, director-general of governmentagency Tourism Malaysia, said more efforts are being made to encourage travelamongst Malaysians to stimulate the economy and hence, counter the losses dueto the decline in foreign tourists.
He said the agency also had astrategy of ramping up promotions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, CentralAsia and South Asia./.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19)outbreak occurred at a bad time, as Malaysia is pushing its "VisitMalaysia 2020" programme to stimulate its stuttering economy, an tourismofficial said on February 19.
Tourism accounts for 11.8 percent ofMalaysia's gross domestic product (GDP), with 28 million foreign visitorscoming to the Southeast Asian country last year, 11 percent of them from China.
While numbers on tourist arrivals forJanuary aren't yet available, Malaysia has imposed a temporary ban on visitorsfrom Chinese provinces placed on lockdown by the Chinese government, in a bidto stem the spread of the coronavirus. Malaysia has reported 22 confirmed casesso far.
Musa Yusof, director-general of governmentagency Tourism Malaysia, said more efforts are being made to encourage travelamongst Malaysians to stimulate the economy and hence, counter the losses dueto the decline in foreign tourists.
He said the agency also had astrategy of ramping up promotions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, CentralAsia and South Asia./.
VNA
