Chinese tourists are set to enjoy another year of visa-free entry into Malaysia, as the country tries to attract more tourists from China. Tourism is one of Malaysia's key industries, and China makes a significant contribution to the sector's growth. Yang Zhao has more.
Set to attract two million Chinese tourists by the end of the year, Malaysia is optimistic it will reach this goal. The country's tourism industry has seen a growth of 23% in arrivals from China since the e-visa entry program was introduced in March this year. Now Malaysia's Tourism and Culture Minister, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, has announced the program has been extended to December next year.
"The Cabinet has made the decision to extend the facility until December 2017, as a result of good performance in terms of Chinese arrivals," said Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.
China is the third largest source of foreign tourists for Malaysia, after Singapore and Indonesia.
"All countries in the world are now competing to attract Chinese to come and visit their countries. Malaysia is one of them and we are working very hard to ensure that by 2020 we'll receive about 8million Chinese tourists," said Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.
On a recent trip to China, Aziz witnessed the signing of an agreement to launch the Alitrip Malaysia Tourism Pavilion, an e-commerce platform offering travel products and services to Chinese tourists.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak also attended the ceremony, indicating that Malaysia will cooperate with Alibaba founder Jack Ma to boost its digital economy.
"Future development of Malaysia digital economy will be in partnership with Mr Jack Ma, he will advise us and he will tell us how we can put together," Mohd Najib Tun Razak said.
He said Malaysia hopes to attract more Chinese tourists through the tourism pavilion, which he says is a good example of cooperation in the digital economy.
With a large number of users, Alitrip, part of the Alibaba group, is expected to bring further benefits to Malaysia's tourism industry.
