By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, July 25: While Malaysia welcomes investments from other countries in the local tourism industry and encourages greater participation in tourism development, all investments and business activities must be conducted through legal and compliant channels.
In a Facebook post, Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture Dato Sri Tiong King Sing said this followed a meeting with World Tourism Alliance (WTA) Chair, Zhang Xu, during the Asean-China and Malaysia-China tourism dialogues held in Langkawi recently.
During the meeting, Tiong, who is also Dudong assemblyman and Bintulu MP, raised the issue of tourism safety, emphasising that Malaysia’s recent efforts to strengthen law enforcement in the tourism market are not targeted at any particular country or tourist, but rather aimed at protecting the lives and travel experiences of all tourists.
He said illegal operations, including unapproved tour packages, unauthorised transportation services, and unlicensed tourist facilities, not only undermine legitimate businesses but also pose potential risks to tourist safety.
Therefore, he said, the government must strengthen enforcement efforts to ensure that all tourism activities comply with legal requirements and meet established safety standards.
“We welcome Chinese investment in the local tourism industry and encourage more Chinese operators to participate in tourism development.
“However, we hope all investment and business activities will be conducted through legal and compliant channels, and we encourage Chinese operators to cooperate with legitimate local partners to jointly build a healthier and more sustainable tourism ecosystem,” he said.
At the same time, Tiong said Zhang Xu noted that the WTA will help familiarise Chinese tourism operators with Malaysia’s laws, regulations, and tourism safety requirements through training programmes, industry exchanges, and promotional activities, enabling them to operate legally while safeguarding tourists’ rights.
“We agreed that tourism safety is key to tourism development and pledged to deepen tourism cooperation between Malaysia, China, and Asean, for a safer, more standardised, and more competitive regional tourism environment,” said Tiong.
The meeting also saw the exchange of views on Malaysia-China tourism cooperation, Asean regional tourism development, and industry standards, and both parties agreed to further strengthen cooperation to promote the development of high-quality regional tourism.
He added that the WTA will review the suggestions put forward by Malaysia, study how to further promote a long-term cooperation mechanism between the two sides, and report to relevant Chinese government agencies.
Meanwhile, in a separate Facebook post, Tiong said he also met with Zhang Lizhong, who is the secretary-general of the Asean-China Centre, where they agreed that the centre should leverage its platform to deepen tourism cooperation between Asean and China.
“In the constantly changing international situation, the tourism industry is facing challenges that must be addressed with a closer and higher-level communication mechanism between Asean and China.
“I suggested that, besides our existing working-level exchanges, a regular ministerial dialogue for tourism between China and Asean should be established for in-depth discussions on topics such as tourism policies, marketing, tourism recovery, and crisis response, thereby strengthening policy coordination,” said Tiong.
He also said that they touched on strengthening tourism talent development with more cooperation in tour guide training, tourism operator capacity building, and youth exchanges.
Tiong also noted that Zhang Lizhong suggested that both sides further strengthen cooperation in areas such as smart tourism, digital tourism, sustainable tourism, tourism talent training, and youth and cultural exchanges, adding that the centre is willing to continue playing a bridging role and fully support Malaysia in promoting various tourism cooperation initiatives. — DayakDaily
