PUTRAJAYA, 8 January 2020: Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) will launch two new policies this year to improve tourism revenue and strengthen the inclusivity of ethnic groups in the country.
Bernama news agency identified the two projects as the National Tourism Policy (DPN2030) and the National Cultural Policy (DKN) geared to boosting the country’s tourism and culture.
Minister Datuk Mohammadin Ketapi said the two policies, in line with the goals of the “Shared Prosperity Vision 2030”, are currently in the process of being finalised.
“If everything goes as planned, the DPN2030 will be launched soon, while the DKN will be launched in the first quarter of this year,” he said at the MOTAC monthly assembly earlier this week.
The DPN2030 focuses on increasing national income, promoting cooperation and investment, empowering local communities and strengthening the resilience of the tourism industry.
The policy will be implemented through six key areas, namely, transforming tourism governance; creating tourism investment zone; digitalisation in tourism; enhancing tourist experience and satisfaction; strengthening commitment to sustainable tourism and enhancing the capacity of human capital, he said.
Meanwhile, the DKN is a long term concept of shared prosperity that takes into account the cultural inclusion of various ethnic groups in Malaysia.
He said the DKN would promote national identity through seven key areas, namely, high-value culture; harmonious society; sustainable cultural heritage preservation; cultural excellence; cultural development and expansion; cultural empowerment and economic development.
“This year is particularly important for MOTAC as the Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM2020) is a national mission set by the government to attract 30 million foreign tourists with a target of MYR100 billion in spending.
“In this regard, understanding and cooperation with the tourism industry players in the country is crucial to the development of the tourism industry based on the National Eco-Tourism Plan 2016-2025,” he said.
Malaysia would also set to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2020 summit, Kuala Lumpur World Book Capital 2020 (KLWBC 2020) including 100 other events to be held nationwide in conjunction with VM2020, he said.
Commenting on the achievement in 2019, Mohammadin said, under the Minister’s Performance Indicator (MPI) 2019, MOTAC had successfully implemented almost all core activities in the tourism and cultural empowerment sector with encouraging percentage comparable to other ministries.
“For the period of January to September last year, we recorded a 3.7% increase in tourist arrivals at 20.11 million compared to 19.39 million for the same period in 2018.
“We also managed to increase foreign tourist spending for the same period last year by 6.66 per cent to MYR66.14 billion compared with MYR61.85 billion for the same period in 2018,” he said.
(Source: Bernama)
