While domestic travel in China has caught up with pre-pandemic numbers, outbound travel is experiencing a sluggish recovery.
Nonetheless, industry players are optimistic about a rebound in the next few months.
“China’s outbound travel has recovered by only about 20 to 30 per cent. By May, it’s expected to improve further to 50 per cent. When summer comes, I expect outbound travel to hit 80 to 90 per cent,” said mainland Chinese tour operator Li Cheng.
He added that with an anticipated increase in flight frequencies, more Chinese travellers are likely to visit Malaysia as well as the wider Southeast Asia region.
BUSINESSES NOT READY
While Malaysia is gearing up for a surge in mainland Chinese tourist arrivals, some are worried that the tourism industry would not be able to cope, given a lot of players were forced to close during the pandemic.
Those that remain open are struggling with staffing and rising costs.
“Compared to pre-pandemic, we are paying our staff more. Also electricity and utilities are more expensive, the rent as well, basically everything,” said Mr Ng Sin Leong, founder of Mingle guesthouse.
“It is not an issue of lack of workers – there are workers in the market. The problem is lack of management and skilled workers.”
Industry players said they hope the government can do more to help ease the cost of doing business, which has gone up by an average of 30 per cent.
Last year, Malaysia recorded 10.07 million international tourist arrivals who spent RM28.2 billion (US$6.3 billion).
It hopes to more than double that amount next year with a forecast of 23.5 million visitors with some US$17 billion in tourism receipts.
But meanwhile, Malaysia needs to speed up the recovery of its airline, hotels and transportation sectors if it wants to meet its target of generating US$11 billion in tourism revenue this year.
Source: CNA
