Domestic Tourist Index, 1st in the world

It is believed to be the first of its kind in the world, Tousrism Ministry is expected to introduce a domestic tourist index set to be launched by the year end. This index will essentially tracks site attractiveness and inter-state tourist flow within Malaysia. It is also understood that the Ministry is busy conducting a pilot study to gauge tourists main attraction as neccessary promotional activities can be done. This index (also defined as attractiveness index)from my point of view will eventually solve the current Ministry's stastitical methods which are heavily dependent on hotel occupancy.

Malaysia known as a country with a lot of heritages but Malaysian sometimes unaware that there are lots of places to visit in our country. We want our people to spend their vacations in Malaysia as we are worried that there are more Malaysians visiting other countries than foreign tourists coming to Malaysia. Recently, relevant authority had announced from Sept 1, tourists from countries that require visas to enter Malaysia will be able to get visas on arrival at the international airports in the country. Look at how government trying to catch the world's eyes to come and visit Malaysia. We, as malaysian should have taken our own initiatives to visit all those interesting places that we have in our country. For example, Gua Tempurung is for the adventurous travellers. If you want a change of weather, you can go to the highlands such as Bukit Tinggi, Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands and Fraser’s Hill. If you want to spend your time at the beach we have Pulau Langkawi, Tioman and many more. I am sure that we had not yet visited to all these places.

According to industry observers,Malaysian are more inclined to spend their holidays at the beach and islan resort. With the index introduced, it will surely make it easier, not only for foreigner, but also for Malaysian to identify the most attractive places for us to look for.