30 million tourist arrivals for VM2020 can be easily achieved with the recent budget allocation for 2020

International Published 4 years ago on 2 November 2019 | Author TIN Media

Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik, Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister said that the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 (VM2020) Campaign was a national mission which should have the participation of every Malaysian citizen and should promote the same in order to convert it to a grand success. He also said that not only the citizen but also the individuals and industry players must take up a role to play in order to boost the local tourism industry and make Malaysia a destination of choice for tourists, worldwide.

He was optimistic about achieving the set target and hoped that the industry players and private individuals should ensure that the services they offered were of high quality and should be unique in order to stand out from the lot. Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik  said at the launch of the Visit Malaysia 2020 Campaign, Penang level, here on Saturday night (Oct 12) "The government is confident that with the participation of the private sector, the target of 30 million tourists and tourism revenue of RM100bil can be easily achieved,"

He added "We must ensure that the services are of top quality and should necessarily include what tourists want, such as cleanliness and transportation, kindness, safety, and personal touch, which are important to tourists who will remember them and take back good memories of Malaysia,".

While addressing, he particularly took the example of Penang and said that the island should portray some X-factor in order to make the island stand out amongst the lot and drawing maximum tourist into the state. He said the ministry is ready to welcome anyone who wanted to use the logo and songs of their respective events so as to increase public awareness of VM2020 in general and can be a win-win for both the parties.

Meanwhile, commenting on Budget 2020, Muhammad Bakhtiar said the ministry was happy with the allocation provided it by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng. He said "We will use the allocation to upgrade several tourist destinations, improve and build new infrastructure,". In the recent Budget 2020, the ministry was allocated RM1.1billion for Visit Malaysia Year 2020, and the government organising the Health Tourism Year 2020 as part of the programme which can help them continue the initiative and promote it in a much bigger scale.