The Minister of Tourism, Malaysia, Y.B. Dato' Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen made a 3-day working visit to Milan, Italy from 28 to 31st May 2010.
The Minister's visit to Italy was to promote Malaysia as a preferred holiday destination among Italians. During her visit, Y.B. Dato' Sri met with local trade players and members of the media and updated them on several new tourism products in Malaysia that would be of particular interest to the Italian market, i.e. eco-tourism, homestay, Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) and MICE market. Y.B. Dato' Sri also hosted a networking lunch.
At the luncheon, Y.B. Dato' Sri said her ministry would work with Malaysia Airlines or other airlines to increase the number of Italian tourists. She said Malaysia would focus on 5 main markets - UK, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands in its bid to attract more European tourists.
Y.B. Dato' Sri said the UK topped the list in tourist arrivals with 430,000 last year, followed by 130,000 visitors from Germany and 46,500 visitors from Italy.