Uzaidi Udanis, President of the Malaysian Tourism Council (MTC), visited Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) to explore further practical cooperation with the local organizations.
“Malaysia is lack of Chinese-speaking tour guides, it is difficult to cope with the huge demand of China tourists. We hope that MTC will be able to inform this situation to the government and try to have more local colleges and universities to produce high-demand tour guides for the industry to cater for Muslim tourists from China,” Tan Yew Sing, MCCC President pointed out.
“Souvenirs are an important part for the China tourists. The authorities should encourage local gift operators to learn the fine packaging technique from Taiwan and Japan counterparts, so that tourists would favor the local handicrafts or products; thus, increase the value of both,” Tan suggested.
“I agree that we lack human resources and we are seeking multiple channels and solutions to solve this issue. We place great importance on the China tourists, and we hope to do everything we can to keep them,” Uzaidi said.
Tourists from China in 2016 recorded more than 2.1 million, it has increased 26% compared to the previous year, setting a new record. As of the first five months this year, China tourists have exceeded more than 1.4 million, steadily moving toward the goal of 3 million tourists.
YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia proposed earlier to achieve 4 million tourists in 2018 and 8 million in 2020.
“The roadshows in Beijing and Xiamen were very successful and received enthusiastic response from the locals. We will have more publicity to achieve the two-way tourism between Malaysia and other regions, thus opening up more flight routes,” Uzaidi added.
Tan suggested Uzaidi to utilize MCCC as it is the Guangdong Tourism Cooperation and Promotion Center Malaysia and participate in the upcoming 7th Malaysia-China Entrepreneur Conference (MCEC 2017) to promote tourism.
MTC was established 30 years ago, with 100 institutions and individual members, including the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MHA), state tourism publicity centers, tour guides, souvenirs businessmen and etc.
