Malaysia expects influx of Russian tourists

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30/9 Tass 50

ST PETERSBURG, September 30 (Itar-Tass) - Malaysia expects that the
number of Russian tourists will grow to 30,000 by the end of 2009 and to
100,000 in the near future, Malaysian Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen told
Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
She arrived in Russia to study opportunities for deeper tourist
exchange between the two countries. The program of her visit includes
Moscow and St. Petersburg.
"We began to consider Russia from the point of view of establishing
tourist exchanges ten years ago. First of all, we see here two centers for
tourism development - Moscow and St. Petersburg," Ng said.
"The influx of Russian tourists has been steadily growing since 2002.
This is especially evident in the past four years. In 2006 around 13,000
Russian tourists visited Malaysia, 17,000 - in 2007, 26,000 - in 2008 and
probably, this year's figure will be 30,000," she said. "If over the ten
years we began from zero and reached 26,000, now we can expect the growth
from 26,000 to 100,000," Ng said.
According to the Malaysian Tourism Ministry, last year 22 million
tourists visited the 27-million populated country. Malaysia considers
Russia as one of the most promising countries from the point of view of
tourism growth, as "if even a mere 1 percent of Russia's population takes
a decision to go to Malaysia, this will be already from one to two million
tourists."
Ng stressed that it was important to build up bilateral tourist
exchange. "I want to see Russian people visiting Malaysia and Malaysian
people visiting Russia. When we establish this bilateral flow, we will be
able to speak about the launch of direct flights from Russia to Malaysia.
We have all grounds for this," she said.

-0-isk/gor