Holiday rush: Travellers waiting at check-in counters of Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport ahead of the five-day Labour Day holiday, in Shanghai. — Reuters
PETALING JAYA: 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.
Malaysian Chinese Tourism Association treasurer Jeffrey Phua said its members are also facing a shortage of workers including tour guides.
He concurred that if there were more direct flights from China and visa-on-arrival reinstated, more tourists arrivals would be recorded.
Datuk Allan Phoon, the chief executive officer of three Farm in the City petting zoos in Malaysia, said the number of local visitors has surpassed that of foreigners since the economy reopened.
“We see more student groups, corporations and families visiting us, especially during the weekends. We hope more Chinese groups arrive later so that we can see more activities during the weekdays. ”
Phoon noted that jobs such as veterinarians, rangers, educators and customer service that should be filled by locals have been hard to fill.
Tourism Malaysia embarked on its first sales mission and roadshow to major cities in China between March 29 and April 15.
The mission was headed by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing together with 68 organisations comprising state governments.
An aide said Tiong is now in China for the General Assembly of the Alliance for Cultural Heritage Asia where he will take the opportunity to promote Malaysia.
