Malaysia woos Arabs
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“The number of visitors from the Gulf region has risen phenomenally over the last few years, which explains Tourism
Malaysia’s enthusiasm to woo more visitors from here,” said Tuan Razali Tuan Omar.
“Malaysia became one of the most popular destinations for Middle East tourism, especially from the Gulf Area because of a lot of reasons like nature, beaches, standard of living, social life, smiling people & more.” The number of UAE nationals visiting Malaysia grew by 40% to 29,606 in 2005, according to Tourism Malaysia statistics. With 53,000 tourists; Saudi Arabia remained the most important market for Malaysia. Malaysia is holding a region wide promotional campaign to attract visitors during this summer holiday season. It is making aggressive efforts to project a tourist-friendly image, especially for those from Arab-speaking countries.
“Arabs and GCC nationals do not require visas to travel to Malaysia and can stay up to three months after arriving in the country and at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), we have announcements in Arabic. We have encouraged employment of more Arab-speaking staff at travel agencies and hotels and urged the shopping complexes to put up signs in Arabic,” Tuan said. Malaysia has also launched a “Feel-at- Home” campaign specifically to target Middle East tourists. A street in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur has also been given the Arabic name ‘Ain Arabia’.
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