Malaysian Ambassador Optimistic Over Return Of Chinese Tourists

By Niam Seet Wei BEIJING (China), April 14 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's Ambassador to China, Zainuddin Yahya has expressed optimism in luring Chinese visitors back to Malaysia, in conjunction with the celebration of Malaysia Year of Festivals 2015 (MyFest 2015). With the implementation of visa-fee waiver for the Chinese tourists, as well as the establishment of consulate offices in Xi'an and Nanning this year, he believed the efforts would increase the number of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia. "There will be more than 200 events to be held in each Malaysian state this year, and we have many products which have earned worldwide recognition, he said, citing Kuala Lumpur as having been ranked the world's top four shopping cities by CNN's international travel website. Zainuddin was speaking to Bernama after officiating Malaysia's booth at the three-day China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market (COTTM 2015) here Tuesday. Malaysia aims to receive 29.4 million Chinese tourist arrivals this year, following a sharp drop in the number of Chinese visitors last year as a result of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 tragedy, as well as a kidnapping incident in east Malaysian state of Sabah. COTTM 2015, beginning Tuesday is regarded as one of the most important platforms in the tourism industry and remains the only business-to-business event that focuses purely on the burgeoning outbound market. Six travel agencies under the Malaysia Inbound Tourism Association (MITA), agencies from Malaysian states of Sarawak and Melaka, as well as three airline companies, including MAS, AirAsia and China Airlines are among the exhibition's participants. Marina Putrajaya Sdn Bhd sales and marketing manager, Zetty Abd Razak hoped the event would attract more Chinese tourists to Malaysia despite the impact of the MH370 incident last year. She said the incident saw a drop of some 30 per cent of Chinese visitors to Putrajaya (Malaysia's administrative capital) last year, and hopefully this year would see an increase. HTC Travel Services (M) Sdn Bhd general manager Raymond Ooi said following the MH370 incident, travellers from Beijing registered a significant drop as compared to other provinces in China. --BERNAMA