Leading the charge at Malaysia's 17th participation in the ATM from Tuesday until Friday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre is Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

According to Azizan Noordin, Tourism Malaysia's deputy director-general for planning, the target is to lure 300,000 Arab visitors to Malaysia in 2010, from 284,890 recorded in 2009.

The tourism promotion agency is eyeing 85,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia and 30,000 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as 115,000 from Iran this year, among others.

The target audience for the West Asian market included families, young adults, members of royal families and high-end market, special interest groups, honeymooners, corporate groups, business travellers and students, he said ahead of the event.

"One of our objectives in Dubai is to promote Malaysia as a top-of-mind tourist destination as well as strengthen our marketing and promotional activities involving players such as travel agents, airlines and corporate sectors," Azizan said.

He reckoned that Arab visitors would continue to be attracted by shopping and scenes of urban life in Malaysia.

Family-oriented activities like those available at theme parks such as Genting Highlands, Sunway Lagoon and A'Famosa Resort also generate interest among tourists from this region.

"This is because the Arabs are more likely to go on vacation with their families rather than taking a group tour (involving strangers)," he said.

Azizan said Malaysia's numerous islands and beaches, including Penang and the resort island of Langkawi, would continue to be high on the list of things to do among Arab travellers.

Malaysia will also be reinforcing its niche products such as ecotourism, homestay programme, wedding and honeymoon packages, health tourism, wellness and spa, yachting, horse-riding and education tourism, at the ATM 2010.

"We're also giving attention to high-end tourists, enticing them with luxury vacations in places like Langkawi and Pangkor," Azizan said, adding that golfing and the Malaysia My Second Home programme were also geared towards this market segment.

For 2010, Malaysia has set a target of 24 million tourist arrivals and an estimated revenue of RM54bil. From 22.05 million visitor arrivals in 2008, Malaysia welcomed 23.65 million tourists in 2009. - Bernama