FREE VISA INITIATIVES BOOST TOURISM
It is now much easier for foreigners to enter the country, boosting tourism
THE government’s free visa and eVisa initiatives have augured well for the travel industry, particularly in boosting tourist arrivals to Malaysia.
Malaysian Association of Tours and Travel Agents president Datuk Hamzah Rahmat said the initiatives had made it easier for foreigners to enter the country.
“The ease of applying for visas to enter Malaysia has raised the number of visitors to the country,” he said.
This helped boost tourist arrivals to 26.7 million in Malaysia last year.
According to the National Transformation Programme (NTP) Annual report 2016, 26.7 per cent of the tourists were from China.
The report also showed an increase of RM13 billion in tourist spending, bringing the total revenue to RM82.1 billion.
The statistics, the NTP report said, proved that the tourism industry was moving closer to achieving the target of 36 million tourist arrivals in 2020.
Hamzah said to maintain Malaysia’s position as a major travel destination, it was necessary to conduct robust promotional drives for Malaysia abroad.
“My only hope is that there will be a budget increase for tourism promotion so that we can uphold our position as a preferred travel destination.
“We cannot afford to be invisible as we are facing strong competition from other countries, since travellers, including Muslim tourists, have high purchasing power,” he said.
Hamzah said Malaysia should always stay ahead of other nations in preserving its position as the top destination in Asean.
“We have to maintain that here is the best place to travel for all visitors. My only hope for the our tourism industry is that we will always strive better to attract tourists than neighbouring countries,” he said.
Hamzah said the tourism industry could be boosted by educating the public on communicating with visitors and that they knew the country’s rich natural and cultural heritage.
“We should welcome visitors like how they do in Thailand, and take note on how they treat their visitors. Maybe we can replicate it here to grow tourism,” Hamzah added.
It was also reported that there was a high demand from foreigners to visit Malaysian cities from June to August, according to Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company’s travel data.
Key observations showed that summer sales deals for Malaysia featured the biggest price discounts and savings of up to 35 per cent for travellers from Australia and the United Kingdom.
Expedia said in a statement that travellers from the Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur were up to nearly 200 per cent this summer compared with the same period last year.
Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, in the report, said the Tourism Lab 2.0 identified segments to attract visitors by expanding culture, arts, heritage and craft sector and niche sectors (birding, homestay and diving).
The ecotourism cluster and cruise industry, especially in the Taiping-Batu Kurau area, besides Sabah and Sarawak, is expected to generate a stronger number of visitors to the country.
For business tourism, Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) continued to build on Malaysia’s prominence as one the region’s leading business destinations.
The nation saw a total of 341 business events, comprising corporate meetings, incentive travel conventions and exhibitions that had more than 127,849 international delegates and delivered an estimated RM1.5 billion in economic impact.