JEDDAH, 9 March 2005 — Malaysia’s tourism sector remains unaffected by the tsunami disaster that struck Asia more than two months ago, according to Malaysian Tourism Minister Dr. Leo Michael Toyad. “The tsunami of Dec. 26 has had no adverse impact on our tourism,” Toyad told Arab News on the sidelines of a reception hosted in his honor at Jeddah InterContinental recently. “In fact, Saudi families should choose Malaysia as their next vacation destination,” he added. The minister, who addressed the 6th Jeddah Economic Forum last month, said his country’s tourism industry had emerged as a “very important sector” for the economy. “It’s now the second largest foreign exchange earner for Malaysia, after the manufacturing sector, which hopes to achieve the status of a developed nation by 2020,” said Toyad who met Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT), and offered to train Saudis in the tourism industry.
“We discussed how we could share information and offered to impart training to Saudis,” he added.
Malaysia has about 62 training institutions. They provide training in catering, hotel management, tourism management, tourist guides, marketing, ticketing and other fields of tourism. There are other colleges and universities, not under the Ministry of Tourism, which are also offering diploma and degree courses. “Ours are directly for people going into the tourism industry,” he said.
Last year, about 128, 000 tourists from the Middle East visited Malaysia. Of them, 40 percent were from Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom tops in the region, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
He also discussed with Dr. Khaled Ben Bakr, director general of Saudi Arabian Airlines, the prospects of increasing connectivity between the two countries, especially between Jeddah and Kuala Lumpur and Riyadh and other cities in the region. In 2004, Malaysia attracted 15.7 million international tourist arrivals, generating about $8 billion. “This is the best achievement for our country so far and represents an increase of 48.5 percent in tourist arrivals over 2003,” he said, adding that the country has set a target of 16.6 million tourist arrivals in 2005.
He said Malaysia’s tourism infrastructure and attractions located in Sumatra had suffered a “minimal damage.” The facilities in Penang and Langkawi that were affected had been restored. There has also been no outbreak of diseases due to the disaster, he said and invited Saudis to spend their next vacation in his country that boasts many natural and cultural attractions.
Quoting the World Travel and Tourism Council’s 2004 Travel and tourism economic research report, he said Malaysia’s tourism industry had generated 494,904 jobs representing 4.9 percent of total employment in the country directly. Over the next 10 years, it is expected to generate 603,598 jobs directly and 1.73 million jobs in the travel and tourism industry. Some 69 percent of these jobs are projected to be in the hotel and accommodation sector, 11 percent in travel and tourism, seven percent in tourist places, three percent in tourism training, and 10 percent in the aviation sector.
Malaysia Tourism Board Director Zalizam Zakaria told a press conference on Saturday that the country’s tourism netted $8 billion, marking a nine percent growth rate compared to the previous years. The country’s tourists reached 15.7 million in 2004 as against 10.5 million in 2003. They came form the Arab world, Central Asia and China. Zakaria unveiled a new tourism package to Sabah district, which has been recently discovered as a virgin land for tourism.
Over 40,000 Saudi tourists visited Malaysia in 2004, Zakaria said, adding that the annual spend of Saudi tourists in overseas visits is estimated to be around SR40 billion.
