Examining administrative efficiency through the issue of visa exemption for Chinese tourists

Ai Qian (translated name)
China Press, 02-02-2016

On the issue of visa exemption for Chinese tourists, our government has finally announced that it will be implemented from 1st of March until the end of December after much turbulence. The tourism-related industries would inevitably complained that we have already lost the Chinese tourists during the Chinese New Year season. After all, our economy situation isn’t ideal due to various external and internal factors, so there are many people who have desperately hope for the Chinese tourists to help out by coming to Malaysia for vacation.

The visa exemption for Chinese tourists isn’t complicated. To allow, disallow or allow on a trial basis, one only has to choose from the three options. Undeniably, if a huge stream of Chinese tourists flood in, they would cause an impact towards the society even if they don’t do anything bad. The societies of Thailand and Japan often have these complaints. The people of Hong Kong even utter malicious remarks towards the Chinese tourists. The government might as well tell the public unambiguously if it has this concern or fix an immigration quota for west and east Malaysia. It can then gradually loosen up the quota if the overall situation is stable in order to not affect the social livelihood and tourism quality. This would be a very responsible decision and consideration.

Visa exemption would bring income from tourism

It is a pity that the government did not deal with this well. At first, it was the people kept urging to exempt visa for Chinese tourists but the government has missed the opportunity to make the decision. Thereafter, it announces visa exemption but with a lot of limitations where the procedures became even more complicated. The Chinese tourists did not respond so well to this. The private tourism-related industries, in order to take advantage of the long holiday of Chinese New year, have again anxiously pleaded to allow the visa exemption for Chinese tourists.

Subsequently, they have finally waited until the government announced again. Even though the industries aren’t too satisfied, they can only hope that the government doesn’t wait any longer and that the Chinese tourists can actually travel to Malaysia without visa from 1st of March onwards.

Can visa exemption bring in tourists? At the very least, the tourists can come as they like because it is convenient. Thailand, Japan and Korea also have visa exemption for Chinese tourists. Especially Japan and Korea, the amount of Chinese tourists has gone up greatly after exempting visa which indeed brought a lot of income from tourism.

Our tropical sceneries has strong competition from Thailand; if Thailand exempts visa and our country requires visa, it is not surprising that Chinese tourists would like to go to Thailand. Now, the visa exemption may not bring an explosive amount of Chinese tourists but not having visa exemption may cause our country to lose an advantageous weapon in the tourism battlefield of getting Chinese tourists. If Malaysia wishes to compete for Chinese tourists, I am afraid visa exemption is a must.

The visa exemption for Chinese tourists is a small and clear cut issue. But the government is dragging its feet which has caused the society to debate non-stop. The people cannot help but worry about our country’s administrative efficiency. If the officials cannot even properly handle and respond to simple issues, should the people just count on themselves once there are complicated issues?