The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) believes that the Malaysian tourism industry will be able to weather the current global economic downturn that is affecting travel demand.
Matta president Ngiam Foon said Malaysia would still stand to gain from changes in travel patterns as people and businesses curbed travel.
"I believe there is an upside for Malaysia in the sense that people would tend to go back to a country they're familiar with," he said, observing that Malaysia was quite a well-known destination among Middle Easterners.
Speaking to Bernama on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2009 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre here, Ngiam said that all things considered, the number of visitors to Malaysia would at best be at the same level as last year.
In 2008, Malaysia drew 22.05 million visitors, including 264,338 arrivals from the Middle East, generating RM49.56 billion (US$13.76 billion) in receipts.
"If we're able to achieve the same level as in 2008, we'd be very happy," said the president of Matta, an association comprising some 2,500 members throughout the country.
Making an observation on the level of service provided by the Malaysian hospitality industry, Ngiam said all the stakeholders had an interest to improve things further.
"We're not there yet. I think that there's still plenty of room for improvement. There's a need to inculcate what I call the 'tourism culture' among the staff of all service providers, ranging from the hotels to taxi drivers and so on," he said.
Ngiam felt that this was one key issue that the government should focus on in its bid to increase tourism earnings.
Tourism Malaysia has brought in 84 organisations comprising 55 hotels, 23 tour operators, four state governments, KL Tower and Malaysia Airlines for the 16th edition of the ATM.
The three-day tourism show ends tomorrow.
Source: BERNAMA 7 May 2009
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