KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 9 (NNN-BERNAMA) – The number of foreign tourist arrivals to Malaysia is expected to hit five million by the end of this year, according to the country’s largest association for travel and tour.
The easing of restrictions since Apr 1, and the renewed surge in international travel, put the industry in a good position to recover, Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) President, Tan Kok Liang, said.
“We have had around one million arrivals since the government lifted restrictions on international tourism arrival. Of those about 600,000 arrivals were from neighbouring Singapore,” he said.
“However, we are optimistic as countries from the EU, Australia, Japan, India and other ASEAN countries have been giving us very positive feedback, and we feel the five million mark will easily be reached,” he added.
Tan, however, said, the tourism sector still faces challenges, most notably a shortage in manpower, following two years of disruptions and other problems in securing foreign workers.
“This has also been noted by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister, Nancy Shukri, who, we are working with, to raise these issues and seek solutions. The shortage of workers is particularly concerning, as it affects the ability of hotels, restaurants and other manpower intensive businesses,” he said.
“However we are confident that as things continue to improve, we will see a normalisation and the sector will finally be able to pick up where it left off before the pandemic started, even if it takes a little bit of time,” he said.
According to data from Tourism Malaysia, an agency under the ministry, Malaysia recorded 26.1 million arrivals in 2019, contributing 86.1 billion ringgit (19.59 billion U.S. dollars), with this figure dropping to 4.33 million arrivals in 2020, as the pandemic took hold and only 130,000 arrivals in 2021.– NNN-BERNAMA