CORONAVIRUS | The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) is looking to target new markets so that they can hit the projected 30 million tourists for Visit Malaysia 2020 after a sharp decline in tourists from China following the novel coronavirus outbreak.

“The novel coronavirus crisis has badly affected the number of tourists arriving from China which has declined sharply.

“As such, Motac has drafted a ‘quick win’ strategy for the short-distance market that are the Asean countries as an alternative campaign for the restoration of the country’s tourism industry.

“The Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign has also been restructured to focus on the markets in the European countries, Australia, Middle East, Central Asia, Russia and East Asia such as Japan and South Korea to attract quality tourists who will spend a lot of money in Malaysia,” said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi (photo, above).

He was speaking at a press conference after chairing the first meeting of the "Tourism Recovery Action Committee" at the ministry headquarters in Putrajaya today.

This decision to shift the focus to other markets, he said, was also because there have been concerns from Malaysians working in the tourism sector about their increased risk of contracting the disease due to their exposure to foreign tourists.

Aside from this, Motac also plans to work closely with Malaysia-based airlines such as MAS, AirAsia and Malindo Air to explore opening new flight routes to the newly targeted markets, Mohammadin said.

“We will promote in the Asean countries, Central Asia and so on, and we will utilise more of these MAS, Malindo and AirAsia airlines.

“It is not easy to open new routes, it will take a very long time because it involves negotiations between governments,” he said.

However, there have been suggestions to use the faster method of chartered flights, especially from Central Asia, he added.

Motac will also hold town hall meetings with industry players to get their considerations and concerns in restoring the tourism sector in Malaysia, he said.

The first meeting will be on Feb 10 in Selangor, then in Sabah on Feb 12, Penang on Feb 15 and Johor on Feb 17.

At the same time, he said, Motac will also focus on promoting domestic tourism with the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign.

“Even toll prices have gone down,” he quipped.

Malaysia recorded its first four confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Jan 25, and three more on Jan 29. The total confirmed case stood at eight as of Jan 30.

Since then, there have been no new confirmed cases in Malaysia.

As of this morning, there were 20,438 recorded cases in China with 420 deaths. There were also 151 cases in 23 other countries and regions.

Malaysia has also imposed a travel ban only for Chinese nationals originating from Hubei.