KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — The conflict between Iran and the United States (US) does not affect Malaysia’s efforts to promote tourism in the Middle Eastern countries, says Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture secretary-general Datuk Noor Zari Hamat.

He said, however, the ministry was also closely monitoring the situation in the region.

"Among our efforts is to bring in tourists from the Middle East, and we will not stop promoting in those countries.

"The impact (Iran-US conflict) I think is still not being felt at the moment, but I have already discussed with Datuk Musa, (Tourism Malaysia’s director-general, Datuk Musa Yusof), that we will be monitoring it closely,” he told reporters after a signing ceremony of the cooperation between Tourism Malaysia and Telekom Malaysia Berhad in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM2020) at the Kuala Lumpur Tower, here, yesterday.

On the perceived lacklustre promotion of the VM2020 so far, Musa said the perception was wrong because the ministry had been promoting it since 2017.

"This is a misconception. Tourism Malaysia had done a soft launch of VM2020 in November 2017 in London. In January (2018) we launched it again during the Asean Tourism Forum in Thailand,” he said. — Bernama