Friday, October 29, 2010

A Boros Government!

It really shocked me that in the midst of a record government deficit, our Tourism Minister has nearly exceeded her travel costs for 2010 when compared to 2009, "Yen Yen's travel bills hit RM3.25mil, The Star, 29th Oct 2010".

For a government that is seeking austerity measures - reduction of fuel and food subsidies, increase of service charges, plans to impose GST - a burden that it is asking the rakyat to bear, it is displaying a cavalier attitude when it comes to tightening its own belt.

Ng Yen Yen is said to have travelled to 26 countries and 61 cities since 2009, and her efforts paid off as shown by the increasing numbers of tourists to Malaysia despite a global slowdown in the tourism industry. Furthermore, the Tourism Ministry stated that due to our Minister criss-crossing the world, we have been elevated to top 10 "most popularly visited countries".

First of all, to directly attribute the increased tourist numbers to Ng Yen Yen's travels is on shaky grounds. Can the Ministry show a significant increase in the tourist numbers from the 26 countries that she visited? While the Ministry is trumpeting the single digit increase in tourist, our neighbour down south reported double digits. I wonder how many trips did her Singapore counterpart went to achieve these numbers?

An astute online commentator righty pointed out that we do not make travel plans based on what a Minister recommends. We look at the costs, the unique features of the country, the culture, the sights and sounds, etc. Singapore saw a surge in visitors due to their integrated resorts for 2010. It was a "wow" factor that drew in record travellers. Without a "wow" factor, regardless of how many travels our Minister makes, no one is going to be easily convinced to choose Malaysia over another destination.

This is a government that seemed to know the price of everything but the value of nothing. Isn't there a more cost-effective way to promote Malaysia? In her first class "budget" travel paid for by the rakyat, how many people did Ng Yen Yen managed to meet and talk about the unique characteristics of Malaysia? Seeing that she is travelling as a VIP, how many ordinary people did she actually talked to? Based on her travel reports, it seemed she was in effect promoting more of the countries she visited rather than Malaysia.

And meanwhile, we lost the opportunity to take advantage of the World Expo in Shanghai to "sell" Malaysia. Glaringly, it was pointed out that there was bad spelling mistakes in our brochures, unmanned booths, leaking roof, etc. And yet our Tourism Minister's response is well, there was hardly any. How much time did she focus on making sure our Malaysian Pavilion stands out amongst the hundreds vying for attention? Ng Yen Yen could have done no better that to have spent her days stationed at the Expo, where visitors have already topped 70 million. 70 million! Here is the most desirable target audience, travellers who have come from all around the world with substantial budgets, and who are no doubt avid tourists. She could have saved the country money simply by serving teh tarik to the Expo visitors, making sure the queue is orderly to maximise the number of visitors, and handing out brochures or travel coupons! 70m travellers in one single location...RM3.25m divided by 70m - that is just 5 cents per hit!

My suggestion to our Minister - save the rakyat money - visit our local sites for a change...there is much more to do within Malaysia than without!