Thursday, September 10, 2009

Tourism products under audit to improve quality

The Tourism Ministry is auditing its tourism products in an effort to enhance their quality.

Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the audit would be conducted through the innovation centre of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

“The results of the audit will be presented to stakeholders with a view to improve the tourism products,” Dr Ng said in her speech read out by ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Ong Hong Peng at the National Tourism Seminar 2009 here yesterday.

The seminar, themed “Optimising Excellence in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure” was organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.

She added that the Government also provided an allocation of RM200mil under the Ninth Malaysian Plan for the maintenance of tourist sites to complement initiatives to retain tourism standards.

“This shows the Government’s commitment to ensure that tourism products are well maintained for the comfort and benefit of tourists,” Dr Ng said.

She said that as of July, there were a total of 3,388 tour guides and another 1,033 guides specialising in eco-tourism in the ministry.

“The ministry has been upgrading the language skills of tour guides by providing foreign language courses, including German, Russian, Arabic and French,” she said, adding that such measures could improve the quality of tourism services.

Dr Ng said the Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic had led to the cancellation of 5,798 holiday packages from May to July this year.

“As for flight cancellations, Air China reduced daily flights to Beijing to three times a week while Malaysia Airlines cut its frequency to Japan from 21 to 17 flights a week,” she said.

However, Dr Ng said the overall impact of the pandemic and the global economic downturn on Malaysia was minimal because the Government and private sector had tackled the crisis head-on.




Source : STAR
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