QUESTION 4 (25 MARKS) Tourism Malaysia confident sector will be given priority by government KUALA LUMPUR: Tourism Malaysia (TM) is confident that the industry will be given priority under the government as it is a major source of foreign exchange for the country. Its director-general, Datuk Seri Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, said he was confident that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would not overlook the industry, even though a tourism minister had yet to be appointed. "As Dr Mahathir developed the tourism industry in Langkawi which attracts 3.5 million tourists now, I am confident that the country's tourism sector will continue to be focused on when a new policy is enacted," he said at the TM Appreciation and Awards Ceremony Dinner involving TM, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Geeko Tech here last night. Present was TM chairman Datuk Dr Siew Ka Wei. Mirza said TM aimed to attract at least 31.8 million foreign tourists to Malaysia, including eight million from China. "We need to put in a lot of effort as our performance, in the past few years, has not been so good," he said, adding that the factors behind the decline of the country's tourism industry, compared with Indonesia and Thailand, included the use of less effective conventional promotional techniques such as billboards. "The tourism industry is progressing in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan due to huge investments and great promotions using digital media platforms to attract tourists," he said. Source: Adapted from "Tourism Malaysia confident sector will be given priority by government", New Straits Times , 2018. (a) State FIVE (5) programs implemented to promote tourism in Malaysia