LABUAN: Tourism Malaysia is confident that its forecast of 36 million tourist arrivals and RM168 billion earnings in tourism receipts for 2020 is achievable with well-planned programmes and promotions.

Its Visit Malaysia 2020 secretariat chief Ammar Abd Ghapar said Malaysia was still among the favourite destinations for foreign tourists, especially from Europe, the Middle-East, India and China.

“We are optimistic that the number of tourist arrivals will increase compared with Visit Malaysia 2014. That augurs well for our tourism development sector,” he said at a Visit Malaysia 2020 Media and Industry Players Briefing yesterday.

He said the role of industry players was vital in ensuring the success of Visit Malaysia 2020.

“Based on the history of Visit Malaysia programmes, we have seen the jump in tourist arrivals, thus helping to generate revenue for our country’s coffers. As such, we need everyone in the industry to chip in,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said Tourism Malaysia was also confident there will be an increase in Chinese tourists to two million surpassing the target of 1.2 million previously.

“However we are still far behind Thailand which had recorded 10 million tourist arrivals from China. Therefore, we cannot neglect such a huge market,” he said.