Malaysia is missing out on welcoming thousands of tourists from China during the long holidays known as the Golden Week, with tour agencies blaming it on the lack of direct flight between the two countries.

Today is the start of China and Japan’s first post-pandemic Golden Week holiday.

Malaysian Inbound Tourist Association (Mita) president Uzaidi Udanis said that although some made it here, they were mostly individual visitors or business travellers.

“We used to see some three million Chinese tourists during the Chinese New Year and Golden Week holidays in May and October.

“Hopefully, we can make it up and attract more in October,” he told The Star.

Golden Week is often considered a time of vacation for the Chinese people, where significant travel takes place domestically and abroad.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, there were 10 flights between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing operated by Malaysia Airlines alone, while AirAsia had about 320 flights per week to various cities in 2019.

It was reported that currently, Malaysia Airlines flies to Beijing Daxing International Airport thrice weekly while AirAsia flies twice weekly.

Attempts to get Transport Minister Anthony Loke’ comments were unsuccessful.

Uzaidi said the lack of daily flights and the use of wide-body aircraft on available-but-limited flights at present do not bode well for the tourism industry.

“Chartered flights are more expensive than commercial flights, and tourists are not keen,” he said, adding that Malaysia is losing out to Singapore and Thailand, which provide direct flights to and from China.

He also cited the visa requirement for Chinese tourists is another inconvenience as the previous visa-on-arrival is still on hold.

Uzaidi noted that the number of Japanese tourists to Malaysia has been declining over the years, as they prefer more experience-based tours compared with sightseeing.

“We need more direct flights to encourage Chinese tourists to come to Malaysia, and more uniquely designed tours to cater to the Japanese tourists’ preferences.”

He also lamented on the problem facing the tourism industry in hiring workers, including finding tour bus drivers, as many had moved on to do other jobs.

“We noticed that not many students are keen to study tourism or hospitality courses now after the pandemic.

“We need to create better career paths for all tourism-related jobs to make it sustainable for our country,” he said.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by ALLISON LAI

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