SELF PRAISE IS NO PRAISE

When Dr Ng Yen Yen said in parliament that the foreign trips and promotions by the Tourism Minister last year generated an increase of RM635.3mil in foreign exchange revenues compared to 2010 is actually like ” masuk bakul angkat sendiri..
The increase she said could be derived from the promotions of prestige tourism and high spending tourists to Malaysia.
In 2011, foreign tourists spending in the shopping sector alone made up 30% of the total revenue for the industry, which is RM17.5bil compared to 28.7% or RM16.2bil in the previous year. This is another bull by the minister,
Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen told Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh) during Question Time. Kok had asked the ministry to list the minister’s foreign trips and tourism promotion from 2010.
Dr Ng said that the official promotional visits to various countries had also increased tourist arrivals, boost revenue as well as opening new markets.
“In 2011, we went for several promotional visits, including to Iran, Indonesia, China, Russia, Philippines, Vietnam, and United Arab Emirates in conjunction with the Arab Travel Mart”, Dr Ng said. “For instance, tourists from China increased by 10.6% from 1,130,261 visitors in 2010 to 1,250,536 in 2011, generating 12.6% increase in revenue from RM3.1bil to RM3.5bil.”
“This year, from January to August, we visited Singapore, Philippines, and Germany in conjunction with the Internationale Tourismus Borse (ITB)”, she said.
Small wonder how our parliament can put up with Minsters such as this one.

SPAD TO LOOK INTO TAXI ISSUES

After a four hour demonstration by taxi drivers the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) has agreed to look into the problems faced by taxi drivers around Bukit Bintang.

SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar in a statement here today, said decision to look into the matter was made after a two-hour meeting with the Association of Bestari Taxi Drivers of Kuala Lumpur here Wednesday.

Nine issues were highlighted by the association at the meeting, most of which involved operational issues including the claim that the income of taxi drivers was badly affected by the introduction of free GO-KL bus service.

The association also requested that the taxi coupon system in KLCC and Pavillion to be abolished, besides asking for a taxi terminal to be built in Bukit Bintang.

Syed Hamid said SPAD would meet with the relevant agencies to find solutions to the matters raised. At about 3.30pm yesterday, a group of taxi drivers staged a demonstration in Bukit Bintang and demanded SPAD to hear their problems.

The demonstration, caused severe traffic congestion in the area.

THERE CAN NEVER ANOTHER ORLANDO

THE mainstream media have repeatedly described the Iskandar Malaysia region in Johor as the Orlando of South-east Asia, but according to buyers at the recent PATA Travel Mart in Manila, this label needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Iskandar Malaysia is not quite Orlando yet, says buyers.
Tushar Jain, director, BTC Tours & Travel New Delhi, said it would be difficult for Iskandar Malaysia’s theme parks to gain a following among Indian travellers, given the overwhelming popularity of Universal Studios Singapore.
“There’s hardly been any promotions in India for Legoland, Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and The Little Big Club. Indians have therefore been left in the dark about these new theme parks,” he said. “Secondly, the parks in Iskandar are aimed at young children, whereas Universal Studios Singapore caters to all ages. From a business perspective, it makes more sense for us to bring clients just to Universal Studios when they visit Singapore.”
According to Leo Chan, marketing manager, Charlotte Travel Hong Kong, visitors from Hong Kong to Singapore would see little sense in heading over the border to Johor unless ‘they were die-hard Hello Kitty or Lego fans’. “When Hong Kong tourists visit Singapore, they stay for only four days. They do not want to visit more than one theme park (besides Universal Studios) during that time, especially if they have to travel out of Singapore. However, they might hop over to Johor on subsequent trips,” he said.
Dennis Law, managing director, Star Holiday Mart Singapore, was also circumspect about the prospects for the Iskandar theme parks in drawing visitors from outside Malaysia and Singapore. “Iskandar currently suffers from a lack of tourism infrastructure such as hotels and restaurants to make the region an attractive and viable destination for foreign travellers. This might change in future, but for now, this is a sizeable obstacle,” he said.
“Cost is another impeding factor. Visitors have to fork out around US$85 each to visit all three Iskandar theme parks. However, if the parks can band together to develop value-for-money packages, they might just be able to draw visitors from Singapore and other parts of Malaysia,” he added.

URBAN PLANNERS PLAY VITAL ROLE

It is said that Urban Planners and Tourism Managers play a vital role in tourism development. But how can this be when tourism players are never sought after for urban planning.

The planners and tourism managers play an important role in ensuring sustainable tourism development complements with overall municipal policies, besides meeting the needs of both, city residents and its visitors.

Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Ahmad Phesal Talib said tourism planning at all levels was essential to achieve sustainable tourism development and efficient management of the city.

“The experience of many tourism areas in the world has demonstrated that, on a long term basis, the planned approach to developing tourism can bring benefits without significant problems, and maintain satisfied tourist market,” he said in his speech at the launch of the Global Tourism Cities Conference (GTCC) 2012 here Monday.

His speech was read by Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur Deputy Director-General (Planning) Datuk Zulkifli Ibrahim.

The City Mayor said places which allowed tourism to develop without the benefit of planning often suffered from environmental and social problems.

So please put this to work and let us see the results.

INCREASED BUDGET FOR TOURISM GROWTH

The Visit Malaysia Year 2013/14 has targeted to draw 26.8 Million Tourists. Sometimes we wonder how this  will work out. Is there a formula on this earth to really determine the justification for such expenditure.
To achieve this target the government has allocated RM358 million under the development expenditure, an increase of 42 per cent, to target 26.8 million tourist arrivals. How this amount of money will be spent depend greatly on who sits in as the Tourism Minister.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said tourism was a key economic growth sector, contributing almost 12 per cent to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Tabling the 2013 Budget today, he said that total revenue generated from the tourism sector was estimated to increase to RM62 billion in 2012.
As a tax incentive, tour operators who bring in at least 500 foreign tourists a year are currently given tax exemption for three years.
For tour operators who bring in at least 750 foreign tourists or handle 1,500 local tourists a year, the government has proposed under the 2013 Budget that the income tax exemption be extended for three years.
The income tax exemption will be in force beginning with the 2013 assessment year until 2015.
This tax exemption is welcomed by all tourism businesses but will it  really boost the tourism arrivals ??