The Johor State Legislative Assembly was told  that the ranking of Johor as a tourist destination in the country slipped to seventh position last year compared to third between 2016 and 2018.

Chairman Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi of the State Tourism, Youth and Sports Committee said the ranking was based on the Tourism Malaysia Survey.

According to him the absence of successful and strategic advertisements for Johor tourism products was one of the reasons for the decrease.

He said that is why the focus of Tourism Johor is now on promotion and marketing. The first phase will be more focused on domestic tourism, while the second phase will concentrate on foreign tourists.

Onn Hafiz said the promotion will be carried out through different strategies, including conducting media familiarization trips, disseminating social media content, and engaging celebrities to introduce interesting destinations.

In addition, Johor tourism product videos and articles will be created in a variety of languages, such as Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and Arabic, for use in China, Japan, Korea and the Middle East promotions.

“I would also like to appeal to all the honourable members of this assembly to help promote tourism products so that Johor’s rating will be back in its rightful place,” he said.