Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia today decided that it will cease operations of five offices in Los Angeles, New York, Perth, Stockholm and Johannesburg.

Its Minister today said the cessation will take effect immediately.

Mohamed Nazri said the Ministry has arrived at the decision as the operations are facing difficulties to promote Malaysia following the termination of Malaysia Airlines Berhad flight routes.

“We have to seize our operations there since MAC has terminated the routes to these destinations, our aircrafts no longer fly there,” said Mohamed Nazri.

“It is quite difficult to promote, so we have decided to close and focus on bigger European countries – which have been sending a large number of tourists here,” he added.

The Padang Rengas member of parliament also stressed that the move will enable to save the country an approximate RM4.5 million, and the fund will be used to open more tourism offices in China and India – the two largest contributors of Malaysian tourism.

He also said that his ministry will focus on promoting Malaysia in United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and France which to date, have contributed over 500,000 tourists to Malaysia, last year.

Nazri was speaking at a Press conference after a meet-and-greet session with the people at Lubuk Merbau here, Saturday.

He said the declining Ringgit s expected to have its reversal role in the tourism sector of the country.

The Tourism Ministry is targeting 30.1 million foreign visitors to Malaysia with a targeted revenue of RM103 billion this year.