KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's tourism ministry said that it is positive that the outlook for tourists arriving in the country will hit the 36 million mark by the end of the year. Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen said that according to the ministry's statistics through mid-September, the country had received nearly 25 million visitors. It is all part of the ongoing push to boost tourism in the Southeast Asian country. Tour operators have told Bikyamasr.com that the advertising campaigns have been successful and they are largely booked for the coming months. “We are pleasantly surprised to see bookings are being made on a daily basis. So many travelers want to come to Malaysia,” said Ahmad, a manager at a leading travel operator in Kuala Lumpur. He told Bikyamasr.com that he believes Malaysia's calm and peaceful nature “has given foreigners the security they want to have when visiting a country.” He pointed to the unrest in Indonesia and Thailand as being positive for visitors looking to Malaysia for the same type of holiday. “The statistics also show that the country's income has increased by RM1.1 billion per week as they (tourists) are spending about RM164 million daily in Malaysia,” the tourism minister told reporters. She said this at a special ceremony to present an allocation of RM110,000 to 16 associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bagan parliamentary constituency on Tuesday. Yen Yen, who is also Penang MC chairman, said the amount presented today was just a part of the total allocation of RM500,000 for the development of associations and NGOs approved by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin during his recent visit to Bagan. “The rest of the allocation will be distributed in the near future,” she said. In another development, Yen Yen said she was confident that Barisan Nasional (BN) would be able to win back the state, which is currently under opposition control, at the next general election, not missing an opportunity to campaign ahead of upcoming general elections in the country. “We will not let the opposition parties retain their power in Penang at the next general election. MCA and other BN component parties will come together to challenge them (opposition). I believe BN can win,” she added.
