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Rehearsals are underway for the gala celebrations. (Reuters) |
KUALA LUMPUR — Hundreds of thousands of tourists hoping to enjoy Malaysia's gala celebrations of its 50th independence anniversary are having difficulties finding accommodations as the Asian Muslim heavyweight has been fully booked.
"It was an impromptu decision to come here, but it turned out to be a tough one as I spent almost one day before getting a place to stay," Jadeen Jucipher, a Mauritian tourist, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Wednesday, August 29.
"I happened to hear that Malaysia was gearing up for a grand independence day celebration this month, and I just wanted to see how it's done in this part of the world."
Rehearsals are underway for Malaysia's gala celebrations of its 50th birthday.
The celebrations, to be lunched on Thursday, August 30, night would start with light and sound shows depicting Malaysia’s journey in the last five decades.
On Friday morning, the National Day parade will be held at the capital's Dataran Merdeka square.
The King and the entire cabinet will be at the parade featuring segments of different eras helmed by the various premiers.
At night, the celebrations will culminate with a mega gathering at Stadium Merdeka.
On September 10, the celebration will move to Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo.
The predominately Muslim country won independence from the British occupiers on August 31, 1957.
Since then, Malaysia has been transformed into one of the Muslim world's most developed countries, complete with skyscrapers, such as the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, and massive highways and ports.
It has also slashed poverty through stable economic growth, becoming Southeast Asia's third largest economy.
Fully Booked
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| "…our plan has worked and Visit Malaysia Year is a grand, grand success," Tengku Adnan said. (Reuters) |
After a glitzy multi-million dollar campaign to attract holidaymakers, so many have turned up that at hotel desks nationwide, frustrated tourists are being turned away.
"The numbers are amazing," said Katie Hoo, communications director for Hotel Nikko in Kuala Lumpur.
"This is our best performance since we set up here in 1996," Katie said.
"We had to push away many bookings to our sister hotel at the other side of town, but sometimes even they cannot accommodate the bookings."
At the fully-booked Andaman Langkawi Resort, a spokeswoman called this an "exceptional year" for business.
Most hotels in Kuala Lumpur, the resort island of Langkawi and other tourist favorites like Kota Kinabalu and Penang are almost fully booked until October.
Tourism officials credit this to a successful promotion campaign to attract holidaymakers.
"Some questioned our move of pouring a lot of money into the tourism industry, but our plan has worked and Visit Malaysia Year is a grand, grand success," Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor told AFP.
The marketing blitz was aiming to bring 20.1 million tourists and 44.5 billion ringgit into the South Asian nation this year, up from 17.5 million visitors in 2006.
The minister now expects the number to go up to at least 24 million by the end of the year.
So far, the immigration ministry has registered more than 13.5 million tourist arrivals.
The state-run Bernama news agency said Wednesday that revenue from foreign tourists rose to 24 billion ringgit in the first half of this year, up from 16.4 billion ringgit in the same period of last year.
Ivo R. Nekvapil, vice president of the Malaysian Association of Hotels, said many holidaymakers have been enticed by the campaign and have timed their visit to catch this week's 50th birthday show.
"That push is like getting a train started and now it is running very well."
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