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Visitors to Malaysia on the Rise and More to Come This Year

Visitors to Malaysia on the Rise and More to Come This Year
Kuala Lumpur is seventh in a list of the world's most visited cities in 2016 © Inquirer.net

Kuala Lumpur has proven to be a firm favourite for tourists as the city welcomed more than 12 million international visitors last year.

The World Economic Forum placed the metropolitan seventh in a list of the world's most visited cities in 2016.

Kuala Lumpur even edged out popular Asian destinations such as Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo, which took the 11th, 10th and ninth spots respectively. The only two other South-aast Asian cities on the list are Bangkok, which took top place, and Singapore, at sixth place.

Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) inbound vice-president Datuk Tan Kok Liang commended Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) for its dedication to making the city "more liveable".

Kuala Lumpur is seventh in a list of the world's most visited cities in 2016. Image: EPA
Kuala Lumpur is seventh in a list of the world's most visited cities in 2016. Image: EPA

He said the city's food havens, tourist spots and mega sales seasons remained the biggest pull factors for tourists.

"Definitely for 2017, the tourism industry not only in Kuala Lumpur, but in the whole of Malaysia will perform much better than last year.

"Year 2016 was more of a recovery process and we managed to consolidate our position," he said, referring to a dip in the industry that started in 2014 after Flight MH370 disappeared.

Tan added that the Government's visa exemption for countries such as China helped draw more visitors.

MATTA ground transportation vice-president S. Jayakumar said 2017 was expected to be a busy year for the industry as it geared up to cater to more tourists.

"An increase of between 8 per cent and 10 per cent is expected this year," he said.

"In 2014, we saw a drop and in 2015, business began to slowly pick up," said Jayakumar.

The revamps at Malaysia Airlines Bhd also helped the tourism industry get out of the slump, he added.

 


Source : Straits Times

Indah Gilang Pusparani

Indah is a researcher at Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Daerah Kota Cirebon (Regional Development Planning and Research Agency of Cirebon Municipality). She covers More international relations, tourism, and startups in Southeast Asia region and beyond. Indah graduated from MSc Development Administration and Planning from University College London, United Kingdom in 2015. She finished bachelor degree from International Relations from University of Indonesia in 2014, with two exchange programs in Political Science at National University of Singapore and New Media in Journalism at Ball State University, USA. She was awarded Diplomacy Award at Harvard World Model United Nations and named as Indonesian Gifted Researcher by Australian National University. She is Researcher at Regional Planning Board in Cirebon, West Java. She previously worked as Editor in Bening Communication, the Commonwealth Parliament Association UK, and diplomacy consulting firm Best Delegate LLC in USA. Less
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