Students In Russia To Help Promote Malaysian Tourism
From Sharifah Shahrizad Mohamed Sharer
MOSCOW (RUSSIA), Oct 1 (Bernama) -- Malaysian students in Russia can help create awareness on Malaysia and promote the country as a state-of-the art tourist destination, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said Thursday.
She said one of the areas where the students could help was by performing cultural shows to entice more Russians, including the young travellers, to choose Malaysia for their holidays.
"These students can do cultural performances and this can be like their part-time job. We are willing to send dance instructors here to teach the students not only our multi-cultural dances, but also the Malaysia Truly Asia and Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia dances," she told Malaysian journalists here.
She would discuss this possibility with Malaysian ambassador to the Russian Federation Datuk Mohamad Khalis to address the issue of lack of promotion and advertising of Malaysia as indicated by the local tour operators selling Malaysia holiday packages, she said.
Dr Ng is here on a 12-day sales mission to Russia and the Commonwealth Independence States (CIS) -- Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Currently about 7,000 Malaysians are pursuing their studies in the CIS, including some 3,500 in Moscow.
Some of the students in Moscow have already formed a Malaysia cultural performance group named Intan, consisting of Malaysian and Russian students, and have been constantly showcasing Malaysian cultural activities around the city.
The local tour operators told Dr ng during their meeting Wednesday night that lack of awareness on Malaysia was one of main reasons for the lower arrivals of Russian tourists to Malaysia compared with Thailand.
Last year, Thailand received about 350,000 tourists from Russia while Malaysia received only 26,308.
The long-standing issue of flight connectivity was again raised besides the lack of Russian-speaking tourist guides.
Currently there are nine flights from Moscow to Kuala Lumpur weekly by foreign airlines including Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Qatar Air and Emirates Airline but all are connecting flights, causing a longer travelling period of up to 15 hours.
Dr Ng said the tour operators had to be more aggressive in their campaign and to create special packages to help them sell Malaysia as a combined destination with their choice holiday destination.
On the lack of Russian-speaking tourist guides, she said that apart from training more tourist guides to learn the Russian language, Malaysian students who could speak good Russian could also help out.
Dr Ng also said that she would be asking for more funding for promotional and advertising programes and campaigns in Russia because the RM700,000 allocation for this year was insufficient in view of the exchange rate.
She is also scheduled to attend the 18th session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Oct 5.
-- BERNAMA
MOSCOW (RUSSIA), Oct 1 (Bernama) -- Malaysian students in Russia can help create awareness on Malaysia and promote the country as a state-of-the art tourist destination, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said Thursday.
She said one of the areas where the students could help was by performing cultural shows to entice more Russians, including the young travellers, to choose Malaysia for their holidays.
"These students can do cultural performances and this can be like their part-time job. We are willing to send dance instructors here to teach the students not only our multi-cultural dances, but also the Malaysia Truly Asia and Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia dances," she told Malaysian journalists here.
She would discuss this possibility with Malaysian ambassador to the Russian Federation Datuk Mohamad Khalis to address the issue of lack of promotion and advertising of Malaysia as indicated by the local tour operators selling Malaysia holiday packages, she said.
Dr Ng is here on a 12-day sales mission to Russia and the Commonwealth Independence States (CIS) -- Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Currently about 7,000 Malaysians are pursuing their studies in the CIS, including some 3,500 in Moscow.
Some of the students in Moscow have already formed a Malaysia cultural performance group named Intan, consisting of Malaysian and Russian students, and have been constantly showcasing Malaysian cultural activities around the city.
The local tour operators told Dr ng during their meeting Wednesday night that lack of awareness on Malaysia was one of main reasons for the lower arrivals of Russian tourists to Malaysia compared with Thailand.
Last year, Thailand received about 350,000 tourists from Russia while Malaysia received only 26,308.
The long-standing issue of flight connectivity was again raised besides the lack of Russian-speaking tourist guides.
Currently there are nine flights from Moscow to Kuala Lumpur weekly by foreign airlines including Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Qatar Air and Emirates Airline but all are connecting flights, causing a longer travelling period of up to 15 hours.
Dr Ng said the tour operators had to be more aggressive in their campaign and to create special packages to help them sell Malaysia as a combined destination with their choice holiday destination.
On the lack of Russian-speaking tourist guides, she said that apart from training more tourist guides to learn the Russian language, Malaysian students who could speak good Russian could also help out.
Dr Ng also said that she would be asking for more funding for promotional and advertising programes and campaigns in Russia because the RM700,000 allocation for this year was insufficient in view of the exchange rate.
She is also scheduled to attend the 18th session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Oct 5.
-- BERNAMA
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