Tourism Minister reminds social media users to exercise caution when commenting on China tourist arrivals

Malaysian tourism minister, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, posted on his Facebook urging social media users to be more cautious when commenting on China tourist arrivals, in order to maintain a good relationship between Malaysia and China. He pointed out that Malaysia, being one of the top 10 destinations of choice for tourists from China, stands to gain an economic boost in its tourism sector.

This comes in conjunction with China being Malaysia’s biggest trading partner according to the party’s Facebook post. The Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) also concurred with this statement, positing that in 2019, Malaysia received three million Chinese tourists which greatly helped improve the country’s economy.

According to Malaysia media reports, president of MITA, Uzaidi Udanis encouraged the standard operating procedure (SOP) of screening for COVID-19 at the country’s entry points to be standardised for all tourists, to prevent discrimination against Chinese tourists.

The disclaimer for Malaysians to be more careful about their comments on social media comes on the back of the rise in COVID-19 cases in China. According to Bloomberg, in the last week of December, almost 37 million people may have been infected with Covid-19 in a single day, making the current surge in cases the worst the country has faced. The article reported that this could be a consequence of Beijing’s easing of Covid Zero restrictions which led to the unbridled spread of the virus.  Bloomberg also predicted that China could be facing 25, 000 deaths a day from Covid-19, which could follow well into the Lunar New Year weekend.

According to Bloomberg, in preparation of the possible spike in cases in Malaysia, health minister Zaliha Mustafa stated that the relevant authorities will test wastewater samples from all flights arriving from China, along with temperature checks.

This has been a cause for concern among the public and experts over the state of the Malaysia’s healthcare system that could collapse if there is a surge in cases, media reports.

Reuters reported that Chinese state-media have hit back at the growing number of foreign governments, calling their measures of imposing COVID tests on travellers from China "discriminatory".

Tourism Malaysia has embarked on other initiatives to boost its revenue. In November 2022, it tied up with Indonesian eCommerce platform Blibli to unveil a Malaysia tourism promotion to aid in the recovery of the tourism sector. The partnership aims to help entrepreneurs and the local community. Quoting deputy director general (planning) Iskandar Mirza Mohd Yusof, Bernama reported that the collaboration "allows tourism products to be directly promoted to potential tourists".

Tourism Malaysia also unveiled a promotional programme for Malaysia together with Malaysia Airlines in the same month. From January to July this year, Malaysia saw 435,156 visitor arrivals from Indonesia, an 8,678.6% growth from last year. A+M has reached out to Tourism Malaysia and Blibli for additional information on the partnership.

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