Trial run for a year – Chinese tourists exempted from visa

Sin Chew Daily, 11 June 2015

(Kuala Lumpur 10 June) Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri said Cabinet has instructed Home Ministry to prepare report studying the feasibility of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia exempted from visa. The trial run is set for a year.

He said the government is attempting to study the feasibility of waiving visa for Chinese tourists. If the move does not encounter any problem, it would be continued.

Nazri said it frankly that if visa comes under his jurisdiction, he would waive visa requirement for Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia.

He said this in his reply to Pokok Sena MP (PAS) Datuk Mahfuz who asked about the reason of dwindling Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia.

Tourists from China reduced by 8.6% from January to March

He said the number of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia has reduced due to visa issue, impact of MH370 and fewer direct flights by Malaysia Airlines.

From January to March, a total of 6.5 million tourists from China visited Malaysia while in 2014, 7.1 million tourists from China visited Malaysia for the same period. The number of tourists is reduced by 8.6%.

He said Thailand and Indonesia offer visa exemption to tourists from China and this has made them our competitors. To lure tourists from China, we should exempt visa for them to visit Malaysia.

“Home Ministry explains that tourists from China may be involved in vice activities. This is not a correct concept.”

He said according to data, a total of 80 million of Chinese visited overseas last year. The figure is estimated to increase to 110 million this year. Various countries in the world are using many facilities to attract tourists from China, such as printing publicity booklet in Chinese.

He said apart from MH370 incident caused fewer tourists from China to visit Malaysia, another reason is Malaysia Airlines has reduced flight routes. He hopes Malaysia Airlines would re-open these routes.

“If we promote tourism business but do not offer direct flights, they would not come.”
On another note, he said a total of 27.4million of tourists visited Malaysia last year, which was a visit Malaysia year. Despite the number of tourists exceeded the year before in 2013, but the figure failed to achieve the target of 28 million set by Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

He said this year is Malaysia Festival Year. We should work harder to ensure we can achieve the target this year.

Original Source: 中遊客免簽證‧或試跑一年