Yen Yen's visit Down Under cost RM245,000

A total of RM244,720 was spent by Tourism Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen and her aides during a ten day “promotional visit” to Australia and New Zealand last month. According to a written reply to Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah), the Tourism Ministry said that the minister was accompanied by a companion and a senior government officer.Fong asked the ministry to state the total expenditure of their 10-day mission and to describe the “inspirations” attained from the trip which can be applied locally.
“The sales mission is among the marketing strategy which is vital to attract tourists, apart from advertising and media publicity to add a personal touch for tourism operators, airline companies and foreign media who are the target markets,” stated the reply. “The mission also gave an opportunity to review the products or the latest attractions in the market that may be emulated by Malaysian tourism operators,” it said.Ng  said that the visit to both the Asia-Pacific countries from Aug 18 to Aug 29 was the first mission headed by a minister since 2004. It is also the first mission that was held in New Zealand.“About five private companies and three government agencies also participated in the mission with the cost paid for by the respective bodies,” said Ng.

Community based tourism

Ng states that her team have visited Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch, Queenstown and Milford Sound in New Zealand.Over in Australia, Ng and her team visited Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.Apart from visiting these cities, the team's itinerary also included seminars, interviews with the media and festivities for those involved in the sales of Malaysia's tourism packages.Ng's written reply added the products being promoted to Autralia and New Zealand incuded Malaysia's parks and gardens, homestay programmes, golf courses, Malaysia My Second Home programme, shopping, diving, heritage, food, ecotourism and Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (Mice).“The mission also reviewed community based tourism established by the Maori community in New Zealand and that model can also be emulated in Malaysia as we have many ethnic groups,” said Ng.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/145095