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.