KUCHING: The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) is confident that tourism industry players are ready to receive foreign tourists when the country's borders reopen come April 1.

       Its minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said before the decision to reopen the borders was made, her ministry had held meetings with tourism industry players.

       She explained that she had also asked them to be prepared in various aspects, including upgrading their facilities.

       "(Yes, I'm sure) the Industry players are ready. Before the government announced the reopening of the borders, I had asked them to be ready,” she told reporters after launching the National Craft Institute's (IKN) Sarawak Satellite Campus here on Saturday (March 19).

       On March 8, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced that Malaysia would enter the transition period to endemic phase of the Covid-19 pandemic on April 1 and that the country's borders will be reopened from that date.

       Following the announcement, Nancy on March 16 had said that Motac was targeting two million tourist arrivals in Malaysia this year leading to revenue of more than RM6.8bil.

       Meanwhile, Nancy said to achieve the target of two million tourist arrivals, Motac had formulated various strategies to achieve the goal.

       She underscored that this includes focusing on meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE),

       "This is one of our ways to bring in tourists, we have also managed to bid for certain business events to be organised in Malaysia.

       "If we only focus on regular tourism, it may be difficult to reach a high number of tourists, so we need to create opportunities for MICE events to help industry players," she said. - Bernama