Asia

Malaysia to reduce visa cost for Chinese tourists

The government of Malaysia is seeking possibilities to reduce the cost of visa for Chinese tourists in order to enhance the inbound tourists from China.

“We will have to decide on a visa cost, which is not too high and ways on how to speed up the visa issuance process,” said Mahathir Bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was answering questions in the parliament.

Mahathir acknowledged that there was a drop in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia recently.

“Drop in Chinese tourists had not only affected Malaysia, but also other countries. During their national holidays between Oct 1 and Oct 7, many Chinese travel overseas, but many of them had travelled within their country. This might have reduced the number of Chinese visitors to Malaysia during the Golden week”, said the Prime Minister.

The PM expressed confidence that the number of Chinese tourists to the country would pick up again, once the corrective measures are implemented.

As per records, around 180,000 Chinese tourists visited Malaysia during the same period last year. The total number of Chinese tourists visited Malaysia during 2017 was 2,281,666 and the revenue generated from it was around USD 3.13 Billion.