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Malaysia's tourism industry struggling to recover as Chinese visitors trickle in

The nation is hard-pressed to achieve its lofty target of attracting 16 million tourist arrivals this year.

 

Malaysia's tourism industry struggling to recover as Chinese visitors trickle in

Tourists take pictures at the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is hoping the return of Chinese travellers will help buoy its tourism industry, which is still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nation is hard-pressed to achieve its lofty target of attracting 16 million tourist arrivals this year.

With eight months to go before the year ends, it is counting on China, which reopened its borders in January, to bring in 5 million visitors.

As part of efforts towards that goal, Malaysia's tourism ministry recently signed agreements with two Chinese tour agencies to bring 450,000 tourists from China to the country.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim makes opening remarks during the Malaysia-China Business Forum 2023 in Beijing, China.

However, the widely expected wave of Chinese visitors has turned out to be a trickle in the face of high travel costs and insufficient flights.

LACK OF FLIGHTS

"The (number of plane) seats are an issue, connectivity is an issue," said Malaysia's Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing.

"We are trying to increase our scheduled flights, and at the same time, we are trying to get (more) scheduled chartered flights. So give us a bit of time to sort it out."

There are currently 81 flights per week from various cities across China to Malaysia, which is not enough to ferry the target number of tourists.

Malaysia needs to at least triple the capacity and frequency of its flights in order to meet its expectations. But some industry players are concerned that doing so would increase costs.

"Chartered flights are going to cost more so who is going to bear the cost?" asked Mr Uzaidi Udanis, president of Malaysia’s tourism council and inbound travel association.

"We need to find some sort of incentives. Most likely the state governments (need to) encourage chartered flights to fly directly to (their) respective states."

Tour agencies have also asked Malaysia’s government to ease visa application procedures.

In response, the tourism minister has promised to make the process easier, including introducing visas on arrival for Chinese and Indian visitors.

Mr Tiong is also working with the home ministry to simplify criteria for retirees and high-net-worth individuals to make Malaysia their second home.

JULY INFLUX EXPECTED

Malaysia is expecting Chinese tourists to return in full force from July during China’s summer holidays.

"Before COVID, we were getting 3.1 million (Chinese visitors)," said Mr Tiong.

"This year, we will try to get 5 million. We can prove ourselves with this benchmark, we try our best. I hope we can work together in further strengthening our collaborations in marketing and promoting our country’s tourism offerings to the world."

People walk past the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

While domestic travel in China has caught up with pre-pandemic numbers, outbound travel is experiencing a sluggish recovery.

Nonetheless, industry players are optimistic about a rebound in the next few months.

"China’s outbound travel has recovered by only about 20 to 30 per cent. By May, it’s expected to improve further to 50 per cent. When summer comes, I expect outbound travel to hit 80 to 90 per cent," said mainland Chinese tour operator Li Cheng.

He added that with an anticipated increase in flight frequencies, more Chinese travellers are likely to visit Malaysia as well as the wider Southeast Asia region.

BUSINESSES NOT READY

While Malaysia is gearing up for a surge in mainland Chinese tourist arrivals, some are worried that the tourism industry would not be able to cope, given a lot of players were forced to close during the pandemic.

Those that remain open are struggling with staffing and rising costs.

"Compared to pre-pandemic, we are paying our staff more. Also, electricity and utilities are more expensive, the rent as well, basically everything,” said Mr Ng Sin Leong, founder of Mingle guesthouse.

“It is not an issue of lack of workers – there are workers in the market. The problem is lack of management and skilled workers.”

Industry players said they hope the government can do more to help ease the cost of doing business, which has gone up by an average of 30 per cent.

Last year, Malaysia recorded 10.07 million international tourist arrivals who spent RM28.2 billion (US$6.3 billion).

It hopes to more than double that amount next year with a forecast of 23.5 million visitors with some US$17 billion in tourism receipts.

But meanwhile, Malaysia needs to speed up the recovery of its airline, hotels and transportation sectors if it wants to meet its target of generating US$11 billion in tourism revenue this year.

Source: CNA/dn(ca)
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