MELBOURNE, JUNE 20 (Bernama) – Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz wants more Australians to visit Malaysia, especially the descendants of soldiers who fought for the country during the Japanese invasion and Confrontation against Indonesia.
``We owe Australian troops our eternal gratitude for their willingness and determination to defend our country against the onslaught of the Japanese and Indonesians,’’ he said at the ``Malayaia Truly Asia’’ evening here on Thursday.
Nazri recalled how as a youngster he would admire ``the big, tall Australians from the Commonwealth armed forces’’ training and playing Rugby on the Padang when he accompanied his father to the Selangor Club.
``I would like to invite the war veterans, their children and grandchildren to visit Malaysia and get in touch with me,’’ he said.
The minister was addressing a large gathering of Australian travel trade fraternity, to promote ``Visit Malaysia Year 2014’’.
Nazri said Australia had always been an important source market for inbound tourists to Malaysia.
``Hence, it is only natural for us to intensify our promotional efforts here to ensure the continuous growth of this market,’’ he said.
Last year, Australia contributed about half a million visitors to Malaysia, making it the eighth top tourist generating market.
Malaysia, Nazri said, was keen to capitalise on Australia outbound market and tap into the massive potential.
``YMY is all about bringing Malaysia to the world and bringing the world to Malaysia,’’ he said.
``I believe you’ll love Malaysia. This can be testified by 25 million tourists who visited Malaysia last year, making us the 10 th most visited country in the world,’’ he said.
The Minister, who was accompanied by the Tourism Malaysia Director General Datuk Mirza Mohammad Taiyah and director Datin Normasila Musa, was welcomed here by the Malaysian High Commissioner to Australia, Datuk Salman Ahmad, Consul General here, Datuk Dr Mohd Rameez Yahaya and Tourism Malaysia Sydney director Mohd Roslan Abdullah.
The Malaysian sales mission was joined by representatives of Sabah, Sarawak, Penang, MyCeb together with Legoland Malaysia and Park Royal Hotel as well as dancers from Istana Budaya (Palace of Culture).
In the morning, the Minister held a Q&A breakfast with the Australian media and in the afternoon he met about 200 Malaysian students at lunch.
The mission has been to Auckland, New Zealand and will be in Perth on Friday.
BERNAMA