PARLIAMENT The cabinet has directed the home ministry to prepare a paper on removing the tourist visa requirement for China's tourists for a trial period of one year.

 

This is to attract more visitors from China the number for which had dropped sharply following the MH370 tragedy last year.

 

Minister of Tourism and Culture Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz revealed this in a question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.  

 

The cabinet had discussed ways to attract tourists from China as an estimated 110 million Chinese will travel abroad according to United Nation World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), he added.

 

"If things turn out fine after one-year trial, we will consider continuing with it."

 

Beside MH370 tragedy, the visa requirement was another factor why the number of tourists from China had dropped, he said.

 

"The first quarter of 2015 saw 379,265 Chinese visiting Malaysia, as compare with 520,466 in same period last year," he revealed.

 

He also disclosed the Home Ministry had refused to cancel the visa requirement as it perceived there were Chinese tourists involved in the flesh trade here.

 

"This was the answer given by Home Ministry as to why the visa requirement was not abolished," he said, adding that visitors from Asean countries were also exempted from tourist visas although there were those who were involved in the sex trade too.

Malaysia Airlines blamed

On May 25, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Malaysia deemed China a ' high-risk ' country and thus has decided not to exempt its residents from the tourist visa requirement.

However, Nazri today said the Malaysian government needed to change its perception about tourists from China.

Chinese tourists may not choose to stay in Malaysia as they have plenty of employment opportunities back home, he said.

Nazri also blamed national air carrier Malaysia Airline (MAS) for causing the drop in inbound Chinese tourists.

"We promote tourism in Malaysia but (our national carrier) doesn't offer direct flights, so they don't come.

"MAS is a problem to us as they weren't in line with our efforts to promote tourism," he said.

This ultimately caused the government to fail to meet its 28 million tourist arrival, the target set for Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

"However, we recorded tourist arrivals totalling 27.4 million, a six percent growth from 2013," he said.