SHANGHAI, Nov 14 — Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz is expected to propose the waiving of visa charges for Chinese tourists to attract more tourists from China during the Malaysia Year of Festival 2015 (MyFest 2015).

He said the move aimed to help achieve the MyFest 2015 target to attract 29.4 million tourist arrivals and tourism receipts totalling RM89 billion next year.

Nazri said he would propose the idea to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on his return home. “Maybe we can try it next year for tour groups from China who visit Malaysia via travel agents,” he told Malaysian journalists here today.

Nazri said six Asean countries have waived the requirement for visas for Chinese tourists. They are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philipines.

“Whereas we are only offering visa-on-arrival (VoA),” he said, referring to tourists from India and China arriving from Singapore being eligible to apply for VoA at the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex (KSAB) in Tanjung Kupang, Johor. This started on November 1.

Before this, only five air entry points offered the VoA facility. These were at the Bayan Lepas International Airport in Penang; Senai International Airport, Johor; Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Sabah; Kuching International Airport, Sarawak; and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA and KLIA2).

Nazri is leading a Malaysian delegation to the China International Travel Mart (CITM) 2014 in Shanghai to promote MyFest 2015. The CITM opened today and ends on Sunday.

The delegation comprises representatives from the state tourism authorities of Sabah, Sarawak and Johore, and industry players including travel agents and the Malaysia My Second Home Association.

Nazri called on the chairman of China National Tourism Administration, Li Jinzao.

As China and Malaysia have solid bilateral relations, Li expressed his confidence that Malaysia’s tourism industry would gradually recover from the MH370 tragedy.

Nazri said apart from continuing to encourage Malaysians to visit China, Tourism Malaysia will also continue to participate in the CITM, which Malaysian exhibitors have attended for the 16th consecutive year since 1998.

China is the source of the largest number of inbound tourists to Malaysia besides neighouring countries. Some 1.79 million tourists from China visited Malaysia last year, an increase of 14.9 per cent from 2012. — Bernama