PETALING JAYA: Better international flight connectivity and convenient visa on arrival initiatives are needed for Malaysia to remain competitive in the tourism market, says Malaysia Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) president Uzaidi Udanis.
Speaking to The Star from the world’s largest travel fair, Internationale Tourismus-Borse (ITB) in Berlin, Germany, he said thousands of players are at the event to “grab the tourist market”.
“It is getting very competitive, especially with our existing competitors like Thailand and Singapore; both countries are carrying out very aggressive campaigning.
“In addition, non-traditional countries like Saudi Arabia spend huge amounts of money to get tourists,” he said.
Although Malaysia’s tourism market is recovering and has done well in terms of tourist receipts in 2023, Uzaidi said there are a few challenges that need to be addressed, especially in view of the upcoming Visit Malaysia Year 2025.
“One of the challenges is accessibility, as not many flights are flying into Malaysia yet. That is our disadvantage,” he said.
He said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s idea to use chartered flights, which was part of the Budget 2023, has to be implemented soon.
“We need to do that fast, especially for China, because there are not many flights from there.
“We expect to receive six million Chinese tourists. If there are insufficient flights, it will defeat our target,” he said.
While tabling the budget recently, Anwar said RM115mil would be made available as a matching grant for industries under the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry. He also said that these grants would be used to work with Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd and international airlines to promote chartered flights.
“Our neighbouring countries are doing very well when it comes to visa on arrival facilities to encourage more tourists,” Uzaidi said.
“For Malaysia, it is tough because they (tourists) have to go through other countries before coming here.
“Tourists have to go through Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore or Brunei before they can apply for visas on arrival,” he added.
As such, he said the government has to look into easing and expediting the process. He also hoped that banks would consider easing funding facilities for tourist players.
“More promotions have to be done now ahead of Visit Malaysia Year. But we are confident that Malaysia will be able to hit its tourist arrivals target this year,” he said.
Separately, Tourism Malaysia said some 16.1 million international tourist arrivals are expected this year. This is expected to generate RM49.2bil in tourist receipts.
“Since its full reopening of international borders, Malaysia has recorded a total of 10,070,964 tourist arrivals and RM28.2bil in tourist receipts in 2022, surpassing its initial target of 9.2 million international tourist arrivals,” it said in a statement in Berlin.
