Malaysia seeks to rekindle tourism with China, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Malaysia seeks to rekindle tourism with China, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Asociated Press
Kuala Lumpur
Confident the SARS crisis is over, the Malaysian government
announced efforts on Tuesday to revive tourism with places worst
hit by the respiratory disease - China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Malaysia received nearly 1 million visitors from these three
areas last year, including 560,000 from mainland China, but the
figure might plunge 30 percent this year because of the outbreak
of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), said Deputy Tourism
Minister Ng Yen Yen.
Fears about contracting SARS and travel restrictions imposed
by countries where the disease broke out caused airline and hotel
bookings to plummet in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast
Asia, where tourism is one of the biggest foreign income earners.
Tourists to Malaysia from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan nose-
dived nearly 90 percent in March and April, but officials want to
lure visitors back with aggressive promotions that emphasize
Malaysia's safety, ethnic diversity and scenic beaches and
islands, Ng said.
"We will promote ourselves as a colorful, multicultural
country where you can go out and shop and eat or snorkel and
scuba dive, and there won't be a riot or a bomb explosion," Ng
told a news conference.
She said tour operators would also encourage Malaysians to
visit China, Hong Kong and Taiwan after weeks of warnings to
avoid travel there.
Ng said flights between Malaysia and the three destinations
would probably be nearly fully restored by mid-July.
But the tourism industry might not see a complete recovery
until February, when the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations spur
more people to take vacations, she said.
Malaysia was relatively less badly hit by SARS.
Two Malaysians died out of five probable SARS cases reported
here, all of whom contracted the illness during visits to SARS-
affected countries, officials say.
Worldwide, the disease killed more than 800 people, and
infected more than 8,400, mostly in Asia.