NOW ITS ABOUT THE KAZAKHS

Sometimes, it does not make sense to hear our Tourism Minister saying this and that, especially when she says that Malaysia and Kazakhstan should look into connectivity as the most important factor to further spur tourism between both nations, given the increasing number of Kazakh tourists visiting Malaysia. For years now, Kazakhs arrival into Malaysia is via Tashkent on Uzbek Airlines which flies into Kuala Lumpur three times a week with very low load factor. Only Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen is optimistic of receiving 25,000 Kazakh tourists this year, up from 17,000 in 2011, with the upcoming Malaysian tourism office in the Republic soon and joint technical training programmes. She is of course not aware of the difficulties in getting Malaysian visas at Tashkent or Almaty. According to very doubtful figures in 2010, only 10,000 Kazakh tourists visited Malaysia."The numbers show very good improvement and we hope to attract more tourists this year.We need connectivity to enhance bilateral tourism development and I'm sure if there are flights every day, we can achieve the numbers quickly," she said after a 40-minute closed-door meeting with Kazakhstan Industry and New Technology Minister Asset Isekeshev on bilateral cooperation in tourism development at the three-day Fifth Astana Economic Forum (AEF) from May 22 to May 23 Thursday. God bless Malaysia tourism.