by Khairul Azran Hussin
SHAH ALAM, Jan 30 — Selangor has received a high number of tourist arrivals from several different countries aside from China alone.
Its Culture, Tourism, Malay Customs and Heritage Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari said the statistics reflect that there is an increase in the number of visitors from Korea, Japan and the Middle Eastern region.
“We also receive visitors from neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Therefore, we anticipate that the recent coronavirus outbreak in China would unlikely affect Selangor’s tourism sector,” he told SelangorKini yesterday.
Abdul Rashid added the state government would still be able to achieve the tourist arrivals figure of eight million, which would generate RM15 billion in revenue for Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM2020), despite the virus outbreak.
Earlier this year, the state government allocated RM9.7 million for promotional purposes to boost the tourism sector in Selangor.
The state government’s efforts are part of VM2020’s mission, which aims to bring 30 million or more international tourist arrivals into the country and generate up to RM100 billion in tourism revenue throughout the year.
Earlier this week, the Tourism Ministry announced that it has set up a Tourism Recovery Committee to monitor the latest development of the coronavirus outbreak.
The committee is aimed at providing advice and clarification to all tourists on steps that need to be taken as recommended by the Health Ministry to prevent infection during their stay in the country, among others.
