Food and Hotel Malaysia 2011 to help grow tourism sector

The Food and Hotel Malaysia 2011 exhibition, which is expected to attract 20,000 trade visitors and professionals over the next three days, will play a role in growing the country's tourism sector, said a Ministry of Tourism official.

"A contributory factor to the growth of our tourism sector has been the support and commitment of dedicated members of Malaysia's hospitality in dustry, who have had the creativity, the energy and fortitude to raise the level of tourism in Malaysia," the ministry's secretary general Datuk Ong Hong Peng said at the launch of the exhibition yesterday.

In 2010, a total of 24.6 million tourists arrived in Malaysia and spent RM56.5 billion, more than four per cent improvement compared to the 2009 num bers, when 23.6 million tourists arrived and spent RM53.4 billion. This made tourism the second largest foreign exchange earner, after manufac turing.

"Food and beverages represent an important com ponent of tourist expenditure. In 2010, tourists spent RM9.7 billion on food and beverages, account ing for 17.2 per cent of the overall tourist expendit ure for 2010," said Ong.

He also urged the continuous support of the industry players to help the country achieve its goals of at tracting 36 million tourists and RM168 billion in tourism revenue by 2020.

He added that Malaysia is also becoming a popular destination for MICE visitors, as evident with shows like the Food and Hotel Malaysia 2011, which boasts 15 per cent of trade visitors from overseas.

The Food and Hotel Malaysia 2011 exhibition, which is also held concurrently with Culinaire Malaysia 2011, has attracted 1,000 exhibitors.

This year, Taiwan, once again, has the largest pa vilion with 36 companies to promote their latest food and food products to the Malaysian and regional markets.

"The exhibition is an excellent initiative that ad dresses the need for business and networking op portunities in order that industry delegates can meet, interact and hold dialogues of mutual in terests," he said.


Source - btimes.com.my