Malaysia needs to relax visa policy for China, India says ATF 2014 tourism experts

Malaysia envisages growth coming from the two giant Asian markets of China and India. But tourism experts at the just-concluded Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) 2014 in Kuching were in

consensus that the visa policy for nationals of these countries needed to be relaxed.

The middle classes of China and India, with their growing spending power, were also looking at destinations that were not the run-of-the-mill kind. Both Chinese and Indians were also spending a lot more on other segments of tourism such as shopping, wellness, entertainment, etc.

But Malaysians have seen strong growth in tourism traffic from the Middle East, particularly the Gulf countries and Iran.

While there were less than 27,000 arrivals when tourism from these countries first started, the Middle East tourism traffic had, meanwhile, surged to some 300,000 arrivals in 2012, according to Tourism Malaysia.

Middle Eastern visitors, usually, arrive with their children, and feel comfortable with the amenities available in Malaysia, including halal food.

Europe is also a promising market, according to Mohamed Nazri. Tourist arrivals from Europe have increased as European airlines have begun operating services to Malaysia.