Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)
Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia is actively developinga strategy to attract more than 5 million tourists from China this year.
According to Director-General of the Malaysian Tourism PromotionBoard (Tourism Malaysia) Ammar Abd Ghapar, the strategy includes increasingflight frequencies from China and encouraging new airlines in the country toconsider promoting Malaysia as a top destination of choice.
Speaking after welcoming Loong Air's inaugural flight fromHangzhou, China, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on February 2, the official said that Malaysia is encouraging more charter flights fromChina to implement the initiative and leveraging with travel agents andairlines to increase the frequency of flights from maybe twice a week to thetarget of four flights a week.
He said the target is also in line with the50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysiaand China this year, in addition to boosting tourism efforts for Visit MalaysiaYear 2026.
He was also optimistic that Tourism Malaysia can reach thetarget of between 5 million and 7 million Chinese tourists for thisyear, which means a five-fold increase on last year’s Chinese arrivals, in linewith the 30-day visa exemption initiative for Chinese and Indian tourists whichstarted on December 1, 2023.
Earlier, Tourism Malaysia Deputy Chairman Datuk Yeoh Soon Hinsaid China is a key tourist source market to Malaysia and remains in the topsix markets for tourist arrivals into Malaysia.
In 2023, Malaysia received about 1.4 million Chinese touristsand in total about 18 million international tourist arrivals with 14.02 billionUSD in tourism expenditure.
Yeoh Soon Hin said that the new route from Hangzhou, new routesand package flights connecting first- and second-tier cities in China withMalaysia are expected to be able to meet the growing demand of tourists fromChina.
Loong Air plans to operate three flights per week on Tuesdays,Thursdays, and Saturdays from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport to KLIAand round trip in the opposite direction./.
