By
YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz
Minister of Tourism and Culture for Malaysia
Malaysia, being ITB Berlin’s Official Partner Country in 2019 will organise the opening ceremony followed by a colourful programme of events.
The worldwide tourism campaign ‘Visit Malaysia Year 2020’ is aimed at establishing Malaysia on the holiday market. A number of events distributed throughout the year will create greater awareness of the country as a destination. Tourism specialists have set themselves an ambitious target: to boost visitor numbers to 36 million by 2020.
Our long-term target is to achieve 36 million tourist arrivals and RM168 billion (Euro 37.1 billion) in receipts by the year 2020, based on the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan. Building up to this year will be very much like a ‘crescendo’, which is why we wanted to plan a major partnership with ITB Berlin in 2019.
ITB Berlin is truly a global platform from which we can give our message to the world like none other. This will strongly underline our sustainable tourism strategy, which we believe to be the key to the future of our nation, its people and our economy in the long run. This partnership also serves to underline the strong ties between Malaysia and Europe, which will take this wonderful relationship to an even higher level.
The 2019 Official Partner Country project is part of a much broader plan by Malaysia to increase awareness of the natural and human assets of the country over the next years. Kinabalu National Park and Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysian Borneo and George Town cities and the archaeological heritage of the Lenggong Valley are four of the UNESCO designated World Heritage sites in Malaysia that will be highlighted.
By the same token, the incredible variety of cultures and peoples that one encounters while travelling from one part of Malaysia to another are a key to the attractiveness of the destination.