He said the spread of Covid-19 had impacted the tourism industry, which needed an effective strategy to attract tourists.

He said the ministry has called Tourism Malaysia marketing managers from abroad to share their views and formulate the latest measures in view of the impact of Covid-19.

“Currently, our primary focus is on the Covid-19 outbreak in China which can and has affected the local and global tourism sector.

“However, the disaster which hit mainland China can be a factor affecting the arrival of tourists from China to Malaysia and thus affecting VM2020,” he said at a dinner in conjunction with the Tourism Malaysia Marketing Managers conference last night.

Mohamaddin said China is a traditional market important to Malaysia and one of the top 10 countries contributing to the national tourism sector.

He said Tourism Malaysia should now focus on markets not affected by the outbreak such as Asean, India, West Asia and South Korea.

The government on Jan 27 suspended all immigration facilities to Chinese nationals from Hubei Province including Wuhan.