KUCHING, May 1: Tourism, Arts, and Culture (Motac) Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing urges tourism industry players to maintain a rational and open attitude towards working with the government to revitalise the industry.
Tiong stated in a Facebook post today that without an encouraging influx of Chinese tourists during the country’s May 1st Golden Week holiday season, some have viewed the local tourism industry’s recovery with pessimism, with complaints directed at restrictions on direct flights.
“This uneasiness and concern among industry operators is understandable. However, all industry players, including tour guides, catering providers, and other sectors, must maintain a rational and open attitude to working with the government to turn things around.
“We must continue to dialogue, brainstorm, and work together to tackle these challenges, promote tourism to Malaysia, and create breakthroughs,” he said.
He also urged all parties to work together to develop more effective policies and measures to boost Malaysian tourism’s competitiveness by improving service quality, innovating marketing strategies, reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and removing red tape to attract tourists better.
“To do all these, the government and the tourism industry (players) must continue to work hand in hand to realise sustainable development for tourism prosperity,” he added.
Furthermore, Tiong, also Bintulu MP, stressed that tourism businesses must not rely solely on the government’s promotional efforts but must collaborate to identify tourism sector weaknesses and improve policy formulation for marketing guidelines.
“Service quality, word-of-mouth, and other similar selling points must be evaluated for improvement,” he noted.
He said it includes resolving the hiring delay in tourism workers, resulting in a shortage of tour guides. Such issues can only be determined when the government and tourism industry players collaborate.
Meanwhile, on flights to and from China to Malaysia, Tiong mentioned that claims that there are more direct flights between China and both Singapore and Thailand compared between China and Malaysia are also inaccurate.
“Even AirAsia is actively resuming direct flights to and from many underserved cities in China, and I have recently taken chartered flights from certain cities there.
“But whether there are more direct or chartered flights, there have been several dialogues and discussions with the relevant parties,” he stated.
He explained that, in reality, many technical issues and considerations must be addressed before all routes are opened to the public promptly.
“In previous dialogues, I had urged the tourism operators to report their problems to Motac or me. But unfortunately, the feedback received so far has been limited.
“I must again appeal to the industry to bring up issues that can be tackled together to promote and revive the tourism industry towards significant economic contribution again.
“Regarding continuing visa-on-arrival for Chinese tourists, this matter is currently being discussed. We will spare no effort to ensure it can be implemented as soon as possible as a key driver for tourism in Malaysia,” he remarked. — DayakDaily
