The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry will restructure its Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign by focusing on new countries as its markets following the spread of the 2019-nCov flu virus around the world.

Its minister Datuk Mohammadin Ketapi said the flu outbreak that had its epicentre in Wuhan, China, had resulted in a sudden drop of visitors from the country as tourists from China made up 11 per cent of total number of tourists into Malaysia.

“Malaysians especially those working in the tourism sector also expressed worry over the risk of infection from tourist arrivals,” he said at a press conference here today after chairing a committee meeting to identify tourism recovery initiatives in the country as a result of the virus outbreak.

Mohammadin did not elaborate on the drop in tourist figures following the flu outbreak.

He said among the new countries that would be given focus for VM2020 were those in Europe, Middle East, East Asia such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Russia.

He said the ministry was also framing a new strategy to boost tourism arrival from Asean countries.

A townhall session, he said, would be held by the stakeholders from Feb 10 to next month in a few states to identify ways to improve tourism in the country.

“I will also have discussions with state governments in Selangor, Penang, Johor and Sabah to find the most effective solution to improve tourism in the country,” he said.

He also said Tourism Malaysia had also been told to intensify Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign to drive local tourism sector.

“We will also hold talks with Malaysia Airlines, Malindo dan AirAsia to explore new destinations especially in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia as a result of halted flights to China,” he said