PETALING JAYA: A tourism association said it would be better to impose stricter SOPs on travellers from China than to impose a ban on their entry into Malaysia.
Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (Mita) president Uzaidi Udanis said China is an important tourism market and any suspension of entry would impact the industry.
He was responding to calls by PAS and the Malaysia Tourism Agency Association to suspend the entry of travellers from China in light of the country’s spike in Covid-19 cases.
Uzaidi pointed out that Thailand was expecting “millions of tourists in the first quarter of this year” while Singapore had restarted direct flights to China.
He said Malaysia had received more than 100,000 tourists from China between April 2022, when borders were opened, and September.
“They ranged from businessmen and students to tourists. China is an important market for us as they have the spending power,” he said.
Uzaidi said the best way to curb the spread of Covid-19 was to tighten the SOPs. He said the crucial part was to ensure that everyone was clear about these requirements.
“In the past, many were not clear about the SOPs. For instance, when tourists arrived at the airport, they were confused. So, our frontliners have to be very clear about the SOPs,” he said.
The health ministry has announced that all travellers arriving in Malaysia will have to undergo temperature checks for fever.
The latest Covid-19 variant – a sub-variant of Omicron named BF.7 – is believed to be driving the surge in infections in China.
Stop overreacting, says Matta
Separately, the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) said certain parties should “stop overreacting” to the news that China will once again allow its citizens to resume outbound travel.
“Since the reopening of our borders in early 2022, our country has been making steady and positive progress towards recovery, and any knee-jerk reaction to reintroduce restrictions without proper planning risks undoing all we have achieved,” said Matta president Tan Kok Liang.
“Matta has complete faith in the health ministry in managing Chinese arrivals, just as they have done with other travellers from all over the world.”
He said any decision the government makes should balance economic ramifications with the health and wellbeing of the people and Malaysia’s reputation as a safe destination.
Tan said Tourism Malaysia data showed that 3.1 million Chinese tourists visited Malaysia in 2019, making it the country’s third largest source market for international arrivals.
He said initial estimates indicate that 1.2 million Chinese nationals will travel to Malaysia in 2023, which is expected to generate about RM 3.6 billion in tourism receipts.
