21 January 2015
A Chinese travel agency has welcomed the announcement of visa fee-free (VFF) for Chinese tourists, believing the move will help boost the number of Chinese tourist arrivals.
The free visa announcement, more or less, would help encourage more Chinese tourists to visit Malaysia, particularly the Free Independent Travellers (FITs), Tony Duan, chief operating officer of ByeCity, a leading Chinese outbound travel service provider told Bernama when contacted today.
He said despite the significant drop in the number of group tours visiting Malaysia last year, following the MH370 and MH17 tragedies, the number of independent travellers who visited Malaysia was 2,000 on a monthly basis.
Although the VFF was deemed good news for Chinese tourists, Duan pointed out the Chinese tourists were still required to pay a total of 40 yuan for visa application service charge.
To encourage more Chinese visitors, he suggested tourism industry players in Malaysia offer more special deals for the Chinese tourists, and more promotions should be carried out by the government and media.
"Perhaps, more choices of airline companies flying to Malaysia will encourage more Chinese tourists to visit Malaysia," he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced on Tuesday that the VFF offer to foreign tourists, among them from China, was part of strategies to ensure balanced economic growth, inclusiveness and sustainability.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was reported as saying the move could be implemented before the Chinese New Year celebration, while many believed the slash of visa fees for foreign tourists will help realise the target of 29.4 million tourist arrivals in Malaysia this year.
Apart from Malaysia, six other ASEAN countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines had already offered VFF to Chinese tourists.
— BERNAMA
Original Source: www.malaysiandigest.com
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