Malaysia to launch major tourism drive

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19: Malaysia will roll out the red carpet to woo more tourists in a 56 million dollars, year-long drive to further diversify its manufacturing-led economy, the country's tourism minister said.

Amid concerns over security, rising crime and the perennial haze problem, the Southeast Asian nation hopes some 200 special events will help lure a record 20.1 million tourists in the ''Visit Malaysia Year'' campaign which starts in January.

If successful, arrival figures will be around 15 per cent higher compared to 2006, but officials conceded that competition from other emerging markets, such as Vietnam, could intensify.

''This is a bit worrying for us,'' Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor told reporters as he announced the January 6 launch of the drive. ''They also have things to show.'' Malaysia will showcase some 200 events, including floral parades and displaying a used Russian space shuttle, during the campaign which coincides with the nation's 50th anniversary of independence.

A multi-racial country of palm-fringed beaches and virgin jungles, Malaysia hopes to attract visitors mainly from Southeast Asia, China, India and the Middle East, Tengku Adnan said.

The predicted influx would help offset the decline in the number of high-spending American and European tourists, turned away by security concerns following the September 11 attacks on the United States, industry officials said.

''There's crime everywhere. I was in London and one of our delegates had his bag snatched,'' he said.

As for the annual haze problem, caused by Indonesian forest fires which this year kept much of Southeast Asia under a blanket of smoke for weeks, Tengku Adnan said Malaysian and Indonesian governments were working closely to prevent the choking smog from returning next year.

Tourism is Malaysia's largest foreign-exchange earner after manufacturing, which accounts for 31 percent of the economy. It forms part of the overall services sector which makes up 58 per cent of the economy.

Malaysia is expected to earn 44.5 billion ringgit in tourism income in 2007, up 17 per cent from 2006, Tengku Adnan said.

But critics say Malaysia as a tourist destination seems to suffer from an image problem.

''We appear to have it all, but somehow we're missing the X-factor,'' Khairy Jamaluddin, a politician and son-in-law of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wrote in a recent newspaper column.

''That tipping point. The je ne sais quoi. We might just not be iconic enough, hip enough or cool enough.''

Reuters