PUTRAJAYA, May 15 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pledged today that the government will consider proposed measures to attract more tourists to Malaysia.
This was in line with the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry’s target for international arrivals, which included five million from China this year.
“I want to say congratulations to the ministry that in six months we managed to sharply increase the number of tourists in our country.
“In terms of visa approvals, I have spoken to the home minister and as a preliminary step, we can approve charted flights first,” Anwar said in his address at the ministry’s Hari Raya event today here.
The prime minister said other requests could also be considered, so long as they were consistent with ensuring the ease of doing business in the country.
Anwar then said there must be focus on finding more suitable steps to drum up tourism arrivals in Malaysia.
Prior to Anwar’s address, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said Malaysia has already received 178,150 visitors from China while overall international arrivals as of March was 4.38 million.
In April, Tiong disclosed that he signed an agreement with two tour agencies to send 450,000 Chinese tourists here, but said this was contingent on Malaysia making visa applications easier and increase passenger capacity.
