All domestic Tourism Malaysia offices located around the country will close with immediate effect in a cost cutting measure.
The 14 offices will ultimately be replaced by just five regional tourist offices in major tourism gateways.
Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the closures will not affect the current tourism promotion strategy and is simply to avoid unnecessary costs due to job duplication.
"Every state has its own executive councillor for tourism and the State Economic Unit, so we don’t want a duplication of the tasks between the agencies and the tourism authorities in every state. We will create five information offices, namely in Penang for the northern region, Terengganu for the eastern region, Johor for southern region, Sabah at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport, and Sarawak at the Kuching International Airport," he said.
He said Malaysia is still on track to meet its target of 30.5 million arrivals this year.
Earlier this month Tourism Malaysia said it would close down most of its overseas representative offices – in New York, Perth, Stockholm and Johannesburg – after flag carrier Malaysia Airlines cut most of its long haul direct flights as part of its post MH370 restructuring.
