Parliament: No need for Tourism ads in Tamil

KUALA LUMPUR: Tamil was not used in a DVD for the “Malaysia Truly Asia” tourism campaign because most Indians in the middle income group speak English, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.
She said the promotion was market-oriented and not focused on any particular nationality.
She said that when explaining the reason why the promotional DVD was not done in Tamil though it was available in English, Mandarin, Korean and Japanese.
Dr Ng said that in reply to a question from Fong Kui Lun (DAP-Bukit Bintang) who had questioned why no tourism promotional materials were produced in Tamil.
“Is the Government not placing any priority on the Indian market?” he asked Ng during question time.
Ng said to capture the Indian market, it was enough that English materials were used as most Indian nationals who have the capacity to travel could speak that language.
However, she said, the same could not be said for other countries, especially China where the majority of those in the middle income group did not speak English.
“I am not reaching out to everybody. I am focusing on those who have the financial capacity to travel. If I can get 1% of the people in China to visit Malaysia, that is already 10 million tourists. The same is also true for the Indian middle income group,” she said.
(The official national language of India is Hindi. -- ED).
Earlier, replying to Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (BN-Lenggong), Dr Ng said that despite the gloomy tourism outlook in the first six month of the year due to the Influenza A(H1N1) scare, tourist arrivals in Malaysia continued to register an increase.
“Despite figures from the World Tourism Organisation showing a 7% drop in tourist arrivals worldwide due to the Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic, tourist arrivals in Malaysia showed an increase of 6.4% compared with the same period last year,” she said.
However, she said, the tourists spent less in the country as the revenue from the industry showed a very marginal increase of 0.03%.
From January to June, Malaysia recorded a revenue of RM24.46bil from the tourism industry and RM24.47bil for the same period last year, she said.

-the star-

洪細弟冀隆市局撥款 重刷茨廠街老鐵柱

（吉隆坡23日訊）吉隆坡小商販公會副主席拿督洪細弟希望吉隆坡市政局再為茨廠街再度撥款，在陳舊鐵柱刷上新漆。

他說，市政局為美化茨廠街所撥款的100萬令吉，只限于更換玻璃纖維棚蓋工程，但豎立該街道的棚蓋柱子舊漆已嚴重脫落，希望市政局能夠盡快批准撥款，為柱子重新油漆。

他今日與武吉免登國會議員方貴倫到茨廠街巡視時指出，該更換玻璃纖維棚蓋美化工程為了不影響小販做生意，因此分為三個階段進行。

“第一階段工程是從本月5日至今天，共有18天，目前已順利完成；至于第二階段工程今日開始動工，必須在11月9日完工；第三階段則是從11月10日至29日進行。”

分三階段進行

方貴倫指出，他對第一階段工程速度感到滿意，今日（23日）是其工程最后一天“衝刺”但已順利完工，之前受影響的約200個攤小販今日也開始營業；第二階段工程也已開始動工。

他說，茨廠街不能因為進行美化工程而關閉，因此為了減低小販生意受影響，該工程共為期約8週時間，並以三個階段進行。

“這樣對小販就不會造成太大的影響，讓消費者和遊客們都能在這段期間光顧茨廠街。”

他指出，首階段工程進行期間時常下雨，工作人員也加快工作效率和速度，確保在首階段日期內完成更換棚蓋工程。

他說，為了加強安全性，茨廠街棚蓋新增的多枝鋁條，以便支撐玻璃纖維棚蓋，結構相當穩固。

東馬人被誤為外勞

方貴倫指出，隨著吉隆坡市政局執法人員時常在茨廠街巡視後，相信外勞小販不會再出現。

他是受詢及有關茨廠街外勞小販重現問題時，這么指出。

他說，一些來自東馬的小販在茨廠街擺攤，可能膚色黝黑看似非本地人，因此常被誤以為是外勞。

他指出，為減少茨廠街非法外勞小販出現，執法人員常在茨廠街巡視，如發現有非法外勞小販擺攤，將拍下照片作為證據。