MALAYSIAN inbound operators handling the Chinese market have reported many cancellations for tours in April and May, while the NTO has suspended activities on the tourism front in deference to lives lost in Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370 as search for the wreckage continues.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily, Hamzah Rahmat, president of Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents said a meeting with members handling the Chinese inbound market will be called to gauge how badly business has been affected. He added: “I strongly believe this is temporary and things will get back to normal in a few weeks.”
Meanwhile, inbound business from China has been affected. Sunflower Holidays managing director, Mint Leong, said she has received cancellations for more than half her forward bookings for April and May.
“The cancellations are coming from all over China and are not restricted to Beijing. Some Chinese outbound travel consultants have stopped selling Malaysia,” she said.
Bernard Low, Freestyle Holidays’ managing director, also had more than 50 per cent of bookings for April cancelled and believes that forward bookings for May will be few. However, he was optimistic that tourism would recover “once the aircraft is found and there is closure for the families”.
Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, minister of tourism and culture, said the Visit Malaysia Year2014 campaign in China has been stopped “until there is a definite conclusion to the fate of MH370”, Malaysian daily New Straits Times reported earlier this week.
Adam Kamal, deputy president of the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association, commended the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Ministry’s move, saying: “It is the right thing to do taking into consideration the sensitivities of families. Meanwhile the resources put in the China market can be utilised in other markets.”
The Twin Towers Alive 2014, a concert to mark the Formula One Grand Prix weekend in Kuala Lumpur, was also cancelled out of respect for MH370 victims following the announcement that the flight had ended in the southern Indian Ocean (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 25, 2014). The concert was originally scheduled for today and tomorrow.
