Malaysia To Offer Better Service To Visa Applicants

SHENZHEN, Aug 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will offer seven-days-a-week service to visa applicants in China during the peak month after the abolishment of visa on arrival (VOA) due to the abuse of the facility. Malaysia's Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said during the peak period, the number of visa applicants, especially in China, was very high. "We hope that the Malaysian visa application office here can operate seven days during the peak period, to allow all the visa applicants to get the opportunity to visit Malaysia," she told reporters after having a dinner to promote Malaysia's tourism to over 16 tour operators, here Wednesday.

She said the Consulate of Malaysia in China could also work together with the tour operators here in order to enable the visa application to be completed in the shortest period of time. "During the peak period, the tour operators here can also fill up the application forms for their clients so that the consulate does not need much time to check and approve." After all, the tour operators have all the information on the applicants and they just need to fill up before submitting to the consulate for approval," she said, adding that currently, a Malaysian visa application needed about three working days to be processed. Ng, who is on a four-day tourism promotion mission to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, urged Malaysian tour operators to focus more on promoting luxurious or high-end tourism.

She said high-end tourism meant that the package must be above RM5,000 with luxury accommodation, great food and exclusive activities. "The number of high end customers increases especially in China and Hong Kong as many of them are looking for quality holidays rather than cheap products with poor service. They are often cash rich, time poor but demanding," she said. Tourism brought in about RM52 billion to the nation's coffers last year from a total of 23.65 million tourist arrivals. For 2010, the target is RM54 billion in receipts from 24 million visitor arrivals. It was one of seven countries to achieve positive growth in tourist arrivals last year when the rest of the world experienced a four per cent decline, due to the global economic crisis and H1N1 influenza pandemic.