Friday, Nov 16, 2012
SHANGHAI - Malaysia is targeting two million Chinese tourists for the upcoming Visit Malaysia Year 2013/2014, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.
"We received 1.25 million tourists from China last year. This year, we hope we can achieve our target of 1.5 million tourists.
"By 2014, we hope we will receive up to two million Chinese tourists. We really need to collaborate with the provincial tourism bureaus," she said after opening the Malaysian pavilion at the China International Travel Mart here yesterday.
Dr Ng met senior officials from the Hubei and Henan provincial tourism bureaus over flight connectivity issues between Malaysia and cities in the two provinces.
"We have discussed about flight connectivity with the Hubei tourism bureau and we will now talk more with the interested airlines to establish a direct flight between Wuhan and Malaysian cities like Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu or Langkawi in March next year," she said.
At a meeting with representatives from Chinese travel agencies, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia X and other Chinese airlines, Tourism Malaysia board of director Datuk Seri Tengku Dr Zainal Adlin hoped that they would work together with the ministry to meet the two million tourists target.
