BANGKOK, Aug 18 — Malaysia is keen to advance cooperation with its neighbors under “ASEAN trails”, where a traveller can experience different ASEAN countries in one trip, said Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
She said this is crucial in attracting long-haul tourists in bid to reinvigorate the tourism industry in the post-COVID-19 period.
“We are looking into on how to promote tourism trails within ASEAN where a long-haul tourist can travel, for example, by land from Thailand to Malaysia and later Singapore or other parts of ASEAN. We want the world to enjoy the beauty of ASEAN.
“We want to sell ASEAN. We want to share economic benefit through tourism in the region especially there are more products and services post-COVID-19,” she told Bernama here today.
Nancy is in Bangkok to attend 11th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting and Related Meetings.
Earlier, she met her counterpart Phiphat Ratchakitprakan and discussed various matters and issues related to tourism. She also met representatives from Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA).
Meanwhile, Nancy said Malaysia may revise the target of tourist arrival in September as tourism industry continues to pick up.
“The ministry may set a new target to achieve a higher number of tourist number as more countries reopen borders and ease travel restrictions.
“Therefore, we need more collaboration and promotions to boost tourist arrivals,” she said.
In July, Malaysia announced new target for its international tourist arrival as it has surpassed its initial target of two million international tourist arrivals with RM8.6 billion in tourism receipts. Hence, Malaysia revised its target of welcoming 4.5 million international tourist with RM11.1 billion in tourism revenue this year.
She added that Thailand is one of Malaysia’s essential short-haul markets.
“Malaysia aims to attract 800,000 Thai tourist this year,” she said.
In 2019, Malaysia welcomed 1,884,306 arrivals from Thailand, and almost 70 per cent of Thai tourists were repeat travellers.
