PUTRAJAYA, March 1 — The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture will be organising a competition to design the Visit Malaysia 2020 Campaign logo.

Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi said the competition is open to all Malaysians aged 18 years and above with each participant allowed to send only one entry.

"Entries could be submitted from March 11 to 24,” he told a press conference on the competition at his ministry today.

Mohamaddin said Malaysians have been urged to help promote the Visit Malaysia 2020 Campaign by sharing their creative ideas through the competition.

He said the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign would focus on sustainability (eco-tourism and culture) with the objective of reducing the negative impact of tourism development while providing direct benefits to the community through the tourism industry.

The minister said the logo design should represent the Malaysian culture with features towards to New Malaysia as well as integrating with the Malaysia Truly Asia logo.

"In addition, each entry must include logo design and the rationale highlighting the diversity of exciting ecotourism products of Malaysia.

"The designs need to use English words as it involves the international market while the rationale could be presented in Malay and English,” he said, adding that the list of winners will be announced by the Ministry on April 12.

The first winner will receive RM 3,000 and certificate, the second place will receive RM 2,000 and certificate while the third place RM1,000 and certificate. Consolation prizes of RM250 each will also be awarded to five winners.

He said the ministry would put up the announcement and the contest form in the near future at www.tourism.gov.my, www.malaysia.travel and www.motac.gov.my. The public could also contact the ministry at 1-300-88-5050.

The Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign is expected to attract more tourists while increasing the revenue from the tourism industry. It is targeting 30 million tourists and RM100 billion in revenue to the country next year. — Bernama