He was confident the ‘Visit Malaysia 2014′ (VMY 2014) initiative and 96 tourism programmes being planned for this year could become a catalyst for the target to be achieved.
“We are positive the 15 million target can be achieved with the various initiatives that we are planning for this year,” he told a news conference after presenting hamper and ‘ang pow’, in conjunction with the coming Chinese New Year at a supermarket in the International Trade Centre here today.
A total of 165 recipients, including the elderly, single mothers and destitutes, received a cash ‘ang pow’ of RM100 each, hamper, rice and oranges totalling RM20,000.
He said Melaka was upbeat in achieving this year’s target based on the 13.5 million tourists who visited the state in 2012, as compared to an earlier anticipation of 13 million.
Idris said the government would ensure that hotels and home-stays in the state could get 20,000 rooms ready within the next three years to meet the steadily growing tourism sector’s requests.
Currently, hotels and home stays in Melaka could only provide 7,500 rooms to domestic and foreign tourists, he noted.
With numerous offers from various parties to develop hotels in the state, he was optimistic the target could be met in the next three years, while support from federal and state agencies were also needed to achieve the tourist arrival target and quality services.
“With the support of all quarters, I am very sure Melaka will maintain its position as a world tourism centre and become one of the main tourist destinations, in conjunction with VMY 2012,” said Idris.
No comments:
Post a Comment