The Honourable Dato' Seri Ng Yen Yen, Minister of Tourism Malaysia visited the Russian Federation from 30 September to 2 October 2009.
The Honourable Minister of Tourism discussing tourism issues with Dato' Mohamad Khalis, Ambassador of Malaysia in the Russian Federation
The Honourable Dato' Seri Dr. Ng Yen Yen, Minister of Tourism Malaysia visited the Russian Federation from 30 September to 2 October 2009. The Honourable Minister, en route to Kazakhstan to attend the United Nations World Tourism Organisation meeting, took the time to stop by and personally woe Russians and the Russian travel trade to choose Malaysia as the main travel destination in the Southeast Asia region.
During her short stop, Dato' Seri Dr. Ng Yen Yen managed to speak exclusively to editors of several top Russian tourism media about Malaysia both in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Minister took the opportunity to highlight new tourism products that would suit the Russian public including the the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, health and wellness tourism as well as golf tourism. The Minister noted that all the said products are relatively new to the Russian market and gave an example that only 12 Russian citizens applied from the MM2H programme. Hence, the Minister hoped that more Russians would take the opportunity to try all the products available to enhance their holiday experience in Malaysia.
The Tourism Malaysia Moscow culture troupe, Intan, poses with the Honourable Tourism Minister and Dato' Ambassador after performing for the dinner
The Honourable Minister also hosted an exclusive dinner with the CEOs of the top tourism firms and airline companies in Moscow where she took the time to get feedback in efforts towards improving the quality of service and making Malaysia more tourist-friendly for the Russian public.
Russia is fast becoming an important source market for Malaysia particularly with the increasing disposable income and improved connectivity to Asian destinations. More than 26 thousand Russians visited Malaysia in 2008. Despite the global economic problems, tourist arrivals from Russia continued to increase by 15% and is expected to breech the 30 thousand figure by the end of 2009.