Malaysia welcomes arrival of 100 reporters from China

The Malaysian Tourism Ministry held a press conference in Kuala Lumpur Sunday to extend warm welcome to the arrival of 100 media representatives from China on an experience tour to Malaysia.

Expressing the welcome, Malaysia Deputy Tourism Minister Lim Siang Chai said: "This tour also serves as a great opportunity for us to keep you abreast of recent developments in Malaysia and to convey our passion and sincerity in welcoming more Chinese visitors from every part of China, to Malaysia."

Malaysia has long viewed China as an important market of tourist sources and the bilateral ties between the two countries are growing from strength to strength, especially in tourism, he told Chinese and local reporters at Pan Pacific Hotel here.

He expressed hope that the Chinese reporters can have a better tour to see Malaysia themselves and extend cooperation and assistance in promoting tourism exchanges between the two countries.

Last year, a series of incidents involving Chinese nationals took place in Malaysia, and the Malaysian government had attached great importance to the incidents and taken measures to deal with them, he said.

He hoped that Chinese tourists could restore their confidence in traveling to Malaysia.

At the invitation of the Malaysian Tourism Ministry, 100 reporters from China's Xi'an, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming, Xiamen, Wuhan and Hong Kong arrived here respectively over the past days to experience Malaysia's tourism destinations and facilities.

Kamaruddin Siaraf, director-general of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, said that the invitation of 100 Chinese media representatives to tour Malaysia is one of the measures taken by Malaysia to attract more Chinese tourists.

Since the beginning of this year, arrivals of tourists from China have increased significantly and this is a good trend, he said.

He hoped the trend will continue throughout the rest of the year.

Malaysian tourism officials said that this is the largest-scale activity in the ministry's history to invite reporters to Malaysia at a single time.

In another development, the Malaysian Tourism Ministry also on the occasion formally appointed Michael, a popular Chinese Malaysian singer, as Malaysia's "Ambassador of Tourism" to China.

Source: Xinhua