Malaysia Aims To Become Business Tourism Hub In Asia

GEORGE TOWN (Penang, Malaysia), May 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is currently exploring the business tourism market as it is targeting to become an established business tourism centre in Asia. Tourism Malaysia Director-General, Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, said he was confident that business tourism in Malaysia would see a boost given the country's strategic location. "Currently, we are targeting 5.5 per cent of total tourist arrivals into Malaysia to consist of business tourists as we have good facilities such as hotels and conference halls. "The tourism industry in ASEAN is growing at a fast pace and Malaysia is currently on the right track to capitalise on this growth," he said at the World Travel Market (WTM) exhibition here, Wednesday. In 2015, Malaysia registered 25.7 million tourist arrivals and the country collected some US$16.97 billion (RM69.1 billion, US$1 = RM4.06) in tourism receipts. Malaysia organised more than 240 business events last year that were supported by Malaysia Major Events (MME), which brought in more than 110,000 delegates worldwide. The events generated some RM900 million in terms of expenditure and created an economic impact of RM1.3 billion. MME is a division of Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau, which in turn is an agency under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. MME General Manager Tony Nagamaiah said that the body expected a 10 to 15 per cent growth in business tourism starting from this year. "With the current economic status, I am positive that we would be able to achieve the target that we had set," he said. The WTM exhibition, held at Straits Quay Convention Centre from May 18-20, is organised by Reed Exhibitions together with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Tourism Malaysia and also the state tourism body. The exhibition has gained worldwide attention as some 300 professional participants from various tourism bodies will be attending the three-day event. --BERNAMA