‘Impression Melaka’ endorsed as Tourism NKEA project

KUALA LUMPUR: The “Impression Melaka” show has been endorsed as the latest entry point project within the Tourism National Key Economic Area (NKEA).

To be launched in October next year, the project is expected to attract 1.2 million tourists per year, generating RM179mil of gross national income for Malaysia.

Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Azizhe said the show would become one of the iconic events for the Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

“This is a spectacular tourism product for the country, highlighting our history and culture with the Malacca Straits as the background,” he said at a press conference before the ministry’s Hari Raya open house at Malaysia Tourism Centre here on Tuesday evening.

He added that the show would create about 500 direct and thousands of indirect jobs for the locals.

Mohamed Nazri also said Malaysia recorded 12.55 million tourists arrivals in the first half of the year, a 7.9% growth compared with the same period of 11.6 million last year.

Correspondingly, he said, tourist receipts also rose by 16.3%; contributing RM31.18bil to the country’s revenue from RM26.8bil last year.

Most of the tourists were from Singapore, Indonesia, China, Brunei, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Japan, Australia and Britain.