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Malaysia woos Muslim tourists
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The government of Malaysia
is paying 500 Arabic-speaking students from the country's International
Islamic University to be part-time guides as it steps up efforts to woo
Middle Eastern tourists.
The students, stationed at
Kuala Lumpur International Airport and attractions around the country,
are part of the government's plan to attract 200,000 visitors from the
Middle East this year - 67 percent more than in 2004.
"It's a very clever strategy," said Leslie Tang, an economist at UOB-Kay
Hian in Singapore. "The Middle East feels discriminated against when they go
to the West, their usual holiday haunts, so now they're focusing on the
East."
Visitors to Malaysia from countries like
Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab
Emirates have risen fourfold since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the
United States, Tourism Ministry figures show. They stay twice as long on
average and spend almost three times more than their counterparts from other
regions.
Middle Eastern tourists may bolster hotel occupancy rates by as much as 8
percent during the peak holiday period from July to September, said Ivo
Nekvapil, vice president of the Malaysian Association of Hotels.
"We're trying to be more responsive to a specific tourist set that we think
is important and that we're trying to grow," said Victor Wee,
secretary-general of the Tourism Ministry.
Khalid al-Malke, 28, a teacher from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, said friends
had recommended Malaysia as a holiday destination. He and his wife were
spending the final morning of their 11-day break at Petronas Towers in Kuala
Lumpur on Tuesday. The couple had visited Sunway Lagoon Resort, a water
theme park near Kuala Lumpur, and taken trips to
Langkawi Island and the Genting Highlands, Khalid said. "I love it here:
the greenery, beaches. God willing, I will be back."
Middle Eastern tourists are attracted to Malaysia partly because they feel
"more comfortable" in a predominantly Muslim environment, said Hassan
Ebrahim Kamal, head of the properties and investment committee at the
Bahrain
Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Manama, Bahrain's capital. About 66
percent of Malaysia's 26 million people are Muslim.
Halal food,
which is prepared in accordance with Islamic law, is widely available. Many
Malaysian women wear a tudung, or traditional headscarf.
"There's a lot of positive points about Malaysia," said Tang, the economist.
"You have attractions that people are willing to pay to see. You have halal
food. Seeing Muslim women in tudung doesn't freak people out."
Malaysian Airline System, the state-owned carrier, last year scheduled 45
extra flights from Middle Eastern cities for the holiday season. This year,
it has scheduled 70 extra flights between June 27 and Aug. 31.
Some extra flights from
Dubai, Beirut,
Cairo and Jidda in Saudi Arabia, also stop in Pakistan and
Turkey. Malaysia accords
visa-free entry to the nationals of Muslim nations.
Ali Alam, 27, a visitor to Kuala Lumpur from Karachi, said he and his wife
Hina Pasha, 26, both architects, had chosen Malaysia for a honeymoon.
"A lot of people from Pakistan are coming," Ali said last Friday as the
couple browsed in the Petronas Towers shopping mall. "We heard a lot of good
things from our friends about the beautiful beaches, the cosmopolitan city,
the variety of Asian and Western food. It's the best of both worlds."
Malaysia hosted 14 percent more Middle Eastern tourists from January to
April compared with the same period last year, said Sarjit Singh, executive
director of the Malaysian Association of Hotels. About 126,000 visited last
year, a 57 percent increase from 2003, according to the Tourism Ministry.
Arrivals from Saudi Arabia rose 57 percent to 39,432, while those from the
United Arab Emirates and Kuwait more than tripled to 21,161 and 12,063.
Middle Eastern visitors stayed nine to 11 days on average last year and
spent 4,709 ringgit, or $1,239, each, the ministry estimates. Visitors from
other regions stayed an average six days and spent 1,888 ringgit each.
Malaysia may draw 500,000 tourists from the region by 2007, said Tourism
Minister Leo Michael Toyad. "We're tripling our efforts" to attract them, he
said. "They are more long-staying here and of course their spending is
higher."
Tourism earnings are set to rise 17 percent this year to $9.2 billion, the
state news agency Bernama reported Monday, citing Deputy Tourism Minister
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Toyad said his "conservative" estimate was a 10 percent
increase.
Overseas visitors added $7.8 billion to Malaysia's $118 billion economy in
2004, making tourism the second-largest foreign-exchange earner after
exports of semiconductors and other goods.
Malaysia aims to draw 16.6 million tourists this year, 6 percent more than
in 2004, Toyad said. Singapore was the largest source of visitors last year
with 9.5 million, followed by Thailand with 1.5 million.
At Berjaya Times Square Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, about 60 percent of the 700
apartment suites had been booked by Middle Eastern tourists by July 1, said
Jess Kaur, a hotel spokeswoman.
The hotel hired a chef to prepare delicacies from the region and added
Arabic translations to hotel notices, she said.
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur has added four
Arabic-speakers to its reception and restaurant areas, said the hotel's
general manager, Jonas Schuermann.
"If you go to London, you feel at home because you speak English, but
imagine if you can't speak a word of English and you end up there," said Wee
at the Tourism Ministry. "The stress level is much higher. We're trying to
ease that." |
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