Malaysia set to surpass foreign tourist target

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is poised to surpass its international tourist arrival target for this year by seeing at least 18 million such visitors.

Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Dr Ammar Abdul Ghapar said this would exceed the target of 16.1 million visitors.

He said the target is based on various factors – the increase in flight frequency, expansion of chartered operating flights and the allure of year-end holidays.

“Looking at this positive growth, we can easily say that if nothing goes wrong, we can get 18 million tourists this year, which is more than the initial target.

“We hope that this materialises and we are very optimistic about it,” he was quoted by Bernama as saying in his speech during the launch of the Jordan Tourism Board Road Show and Business Dinner here on Monday night.

Also present at the event were the Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of Jordan to Malaysia, Bilal Al Nsour, and various tour operators from Jordan and Malaysia.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Malaysia saw more than 26 million foreign tourists in 2019.

Malaysia, said Ammar, recorded 4.5 million tourist arrivals in the first quarter of this year, adding that an announcement will be made soon on incentives for chartered flight operators in the country to boost tourism.

He said this is necessary as Malaysia cannot depend on scheduled flights alone to boost tourism.

Meanwhile, Bilal said tourism plays a vital role in today’s economy.

He said that for decades, Jordan had heavily invested in tourism under its Economic Modernisation Vision 2030.