masterwordsmith-unplugged

Shoes or art collections, anyone? At this link, You can read Bernama press release about how Malaysia is now promoting shoes and art as new tourist products, following the success of two international festivals held last year (venue not cited in the report).



"Over 100 artists who participated and what I'm most happy is altogether, about RM17 milion works of art were sold in cash," said Tourism Minister Datuk Dr. Ng Yen Yen. The press release said that the festival held in partnership with the Malaysian Shoe Association attracted at least 45,000 visitors and shoes worth RM5 million were sold in cash. This means that it generated total sales of RM22 million, not bad. BUT, how much was spent in promoting the events?

That aside, the remaining part of the press release seemed like a promo talk for a local carrier as the Tourism Minister lauded the 'big role' of the carrier "in the country's tourism industry and which sparked the boom in low-cost carriers in the last 10 years". CLICK HERE to read more.

Last week, The Star reported that the Tourism Ministry wants 25 million tourists to visit the country this year, up from 24 million last year, with a projected tourism revenue of RM60bil.

In Thailand, the Tourism Authority of Thailand reports HERE that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2010 has reached 15.5 million. Excerpt from that report:

In the meantime, the Kasikorn Research Center reported that 18.5 billion baht were spent in Bangkok during the festive season, seven percent higher than last year's spending.

• 5.9 billion baht were spent on New Year celebrations
  
• 5.3 billion on buying of New Year gifts and souvenirs
• 4.5 billion on travel and accommodations
• 1.8 billion on merit-making
• another one billion baht on shopping and going to the movies.

It is estimated that around 3.8 million local and foreign tourists participated in New Year countdown parties in Thailand and spent around 3.6 billion baht while traveling, a five-percent rise from last year.

The total number of foreign tourist arrivals throughout last year is at 15.5 million, 13 percent higher than 2009's figure, and generated around 580 billion baht in tourism revenue.

Strangely, our Tourism Ministry has not provided such breakdowns in expenditure or even in budget allocations! Last year, the Ministry had met the goal of 24 million foreign tourists, generating tourism revenue of RM55bil in our country.

This means that even though Malaysia had 54% MORE tourist arrivals, the total toursim revenue was still 6% less than that ofThailand. WHY?

In 2010, 15.5 million tourists in Thailand spent 580 billion baht which works out to RM 3741 per person.

In 2010, 24 million foreign tourists spent RM55 billion in Malaysia which works out to RM 2292 per person.

This shows that the average tourist in Malaysia spends about 39% less than the average turist in Thailand.

Why are our tourists spending less money than those in Thailand? Ensuring high tourist arrivals is NOT enough. They must generate spending that contributes positively to our circular flow of income and justify the amount spent by the Ministry. As it is, we do not know the expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Tourism.

In October last year, Wee Choo Keong in his site wrote:

“Tourist” Minister, YB Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen, has spent RM1.67 million on her overseas trips in 2009 and another RM1.58 million between January until October 2010. She said that she has made 16 overseas trips (26 countries and 61 cities) since she was appointed in 2009. She asserted that her “trips” have made Malaysia the most popularly visited countries in 2009.

I believe that she is the mos traveled Minister in history and the PM should change her port folio to “TOURIST MINISTER” from now on. If we were to apportion RM3.25 million against 16 trips the total average cost to the country is RM203,125-00! I have not seen visible results from her 16 trips except seeing pictures of her husband and her was published in the newspapers.

In November last year, The Malaysian Insider featured a very interesting article on DAP claims irregularities in Tourism Minister’s overseas expenditure. Please visit THAT LINK to be stunned by the facts and figures.

I tried to visit the official website of the Ministry of Tourism HERE but it seems to be down. What will happen then if important contacts want to be in touch with the Ministry?

As such, I am unable to find any information about the budget/expenditure for the Ministry of Tourism! Perhaps you might be luckier. If you do have the info, kindly leave the link in the comment box. Thanks!

I wanted to compare the expenditure for the Ministry to see if the government spent MORE than what the tourists spent in our country to see if the budget has been justified. If not, then the rakyat deserves a rational explanation.

I did find a couple of interesting links:

What's Going On With Tourism Malaysia? which mentions Sen Media. The article also said that in January last year, the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, announced its ad agencies roster for two years. The appointments, by market sectors, for the account tipped to be almost RM200 million. Click HERE for more. CLICK HERE for another interesting article.

To me, giving just one side of the facts and figures is NOT enough. We need to compare these with the expenditure of each event and the Ministry as a whole. Why then is it so difficult to get any figure for the expenditure? That is another mystery and the answer as usual, is somewhere out there...Another case for Mulder and Scully!

Further reading:

In the Name of Truth and Accountability