KUALA LUMPUR: The government should spend more to promote tourism, said former tourism minister Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.He said the current tourism minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen, was doing very well in promoting tourism by introducing many new programmes to boost the industry.
He said Malaysia currently held ninth place in the world and second in Asia in terms of tourism growth.
“I am very glad to know that the tourism industry is becoming better and better nowadays after the targets and development have been established,” he told Bernama after a presentation on tourism development between Malaysia and Uzbekistan here yesterday.
The tourism industry was where we invested a little but the returns were immediate, he added.
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan Deputy Tourism Minister Alisher H Shamsiev said visitors from his country to Malaysia had increased to 40,000 yearly.
He said he hoped that more Malaysian tourists would visit Uzbekistan.
“Uzbekistan’s tourism ministry intends to get more than 7,000 visitors from Malaysia to visit Uzbekistan this year,” he said. — Bernama