The Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur set a target of serving 16 million tourist arrivals for around 79 billion ringgit (22 billion USD) by 2025 in its new tourism master plan, said the city’s Mayor Ahmad Phesal Talib.

According to him, the goal was made based on the increasing tourist number and earnings over the past 10 years. During 2004-2013 period, tourist arrivals to the city rose from 7 million to 9 million and their spending increased from almost 7.3 billion ringgit to 18.6 billion ringgit.

Kuala Lumpur recently won several international titles, including 4 th shopping destination in 2013 and one of the seven wonders in the world, making it more attractive to visitors.

To achieve the set target, Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor called for closer coordination of both private and public sectors.

The 2015-2025 tourism master plan will focus on a number of tourism segments, namely culture, heritage and places of interest, shopping, entertainment, nature and adventure, business and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions).

With 47 initiatives, the plan is expected to generate additional 71,000 jobs.-VNA