Malaysia records more than 20 million tourists in first 9 months of 2019
Malaysia saw positive growth in the tourism sector in the first half of this year, boosted by stronger international tourist arrivals.
International tourist arrivals stood at 20,109,203 tourists between January and September, an increase of 3.7 per cent, compared to 19,386,115 visitors during the same period last year.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi said the top 10 countries with the highest contribution of tourist arrivals was Singapore with 7,868,755 visitors, followed by Indonesia (2,792,776); China (2,413,956); Thailand (1,442,224); Brunei (929,789); India (539,167); South Korea (508,080); Vietnam (323,393); Japan (321,283) and the Philippines (317,294).
“Tourist receipts for the same period in 2019 reached RM66.14 billion compared to RM61.85 billion for the same period in 2018, indicating an increase of 6.9 per cent.
“The main contributors to the tourist expenditure were Singapore (RM16.3 billion), China (RM12.8 billion), Indonesia (RM8.8 billion), Thailand (RM2.8 billion) and India (RM2.5 billion).
“Per capita expenditure for the period of January to September also grew by 3.1 per cent from RM3,190.5 to RM3,289.3,” he said today in announcing the third quarter performance of the tourism sector.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi left). - NSTP/LUQMAN HAKIM ZUBIR. The short haul market, Mohamaddin said, had retained its position as the largest contributor of tourists to Malaysia with a share of 68.7 per cent.
The contribution of tourists from the medium haul market was 21.6 per cent, while the share of tourists from the long haul market was 9.7 per cent, he added.
“The highest per capita according to market distance saw Saudi Arabia recording the most for long haul at RM11,394.4; China at RM5,301.5 for medium haul and Vietnam at RM3,356.3 for short haul.”
The minister also said the haze which had shrouded Malaysia and neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Brunei had affected the momentum of tourist arrivals.
“I believe the tourist arrivals could be better without the haze.”
Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Musa Yusof said he believed that Malaysia would be able to achieve this year’s tourist arrival target of 28 million.
He said there would be a significant number of tourist arrivals towards the year end, especially in December from countries experiencing winter.
Malaysia normally records about 2.5 million tourist arrivals in Dec.
On tourist arrivals from China, Musa said Malaysia was still favoured by visitors from the country.
~New Straits Times~
Decision on Airbnb next year, says Tourism D-G
Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Musa Yusof said to address the problem, the committee would continue to discuss the issue to find suitable solution. -BERNAMA
The task force on short-term residential accommodation, Airbnb will announce its decision by early next year, Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Musa Yusof said today.
He said the task force was set up to regulate Airbnb accommodations nationwide and would take note of examples from other countries such as France, Singapore and Japan.
“We will look into the issue. What we have implemented throu\gh the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry and the agency under the Housing and Local Government Ministry, is that we already set up a task force to look at what other countries have implemented in terms of Airbnb-type rentals.
“We expect to announce the decision early next year and it needs to be regulated. For example, in some locations, Airbnb accommodations are allowed but not in the big cities where there are hotels available,” he told reporters after launching the Visit Malaysia (VMY) 2020 Kick Off conference here today.
He said this in response to complaints made by hoteliers who claimed of experiencing a decline in occupancy rate despite the high number of tourists arriving in the country as most of them were choosing Airbnb.
Musa said to address the problem, the committee would continue to discuss the issue to find suitable solution.
“The concept of Airbnb in Europe and the US are different than it is in Asia. The Airbnb accommodations that I used to stay at, either in Europe or in the US, the guests stayed with the hosts, and we already have this concept here for the past 30 years and we call it homestay.
Homestay is more for the experiences while Airbnb is more of an accommodation. Only in Malaysia, the visitors are not staying with the owner and this will be regulated,” he said.
He said the matter would be looked at as a whole as there were several joint management bodies had disallowed Airbnb to operate in the condominium building as it was viewed as disruption.
Meanwhile, commenting on the conference, he said it was launched to further promote the promotional activities of the VMY 2020 campaign in the northern states. -- Bernama
Malaysia-Thai border trial extended
New gateway: The newly-built CIQ checkpoint in Sadao will be open 24 hours for cargo traffic travelling between Malaysia and Thailand.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Bukit Kayu Hitam-Sadao Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) checkpoint will operate round-the-clock well into 2020 with Malaysia and Thailand extending the three-month trial period.
The checkpoint, which opened for 24 hours to cargo traffic on June 17, will remain so until June next year to prolong the trial period to one year.
“This will be a boon to businesses and cargo transport operators on both sides of the border,” said Thai Ambassador to Malaysia Narong Sasitorn.
“We have observed more trucks coming into Thailand from Malaysia during the extended hours.
“From the Thai side there has not been a significant increase, so we need to create more awareness,” he said in an interview.
Both governments had decided earlier to open the checkpoint for 24 hours for three months from April 1, but the move was delayed as the Thais wanted more time to prepare.
Border connectivity was key on the agenda when Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad met his Thai counterpart Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha for talks in Bangkok last October.
Following the prime ministerial initiative, both foreign ministers met in the Thai capital in January to reach an agreement to open the border for 24 hours, from the previous 18-hour operation, on a three-month trial basis.
The extra hours are aimed at reducing congestion at the border where there are bottlenecks during rush hour.
Narong said promoting seamless border connectivity remained a top priority to enable businesses on both sides to have complete flexibility to pick the right time to transport their goods and ensure more cost-efficient logistics.
He said latest statistics showed that the number of trucks passing through the Sadao CIQ complex (both ways) was between 12,000 and 13,000 per month, but added that the utilisation of the extra hours was still very low.
During the extended operating hours at the Sadao checkpoint (11pm to 5am Thai time) in June, he said inbound cargo traffic from Bukit Kayu Hitam registered a 2.5% increase, followed by 0.67% (July), 0.56% (August), 0.16% (September) and 0.30% (October).
“The technical team is continuing to monitor the developments at the shared border.
“On my part, I have been in touch with the Songhkla vice-governor to spur things on,” the envoy added.
Narong said the new Sadao CIQ complex was near completion and scheduled to be operational by the first quarter of 2020.
He said a decision on the building of a new road alignment to link the US$78mil (RM315mil) complex with the Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security (ICQS) complex was still pending.
“We have presented two proposals to Malaysia, which has come up with its own suggestion. We need to finalise this to prepare for the opening of the Sadao complex.
“Without a new road alignment, we will have to rely on the existing route.
“But this will not resolve the congestion and bottleneck situation at peak hours with more lorries and trucks waiting to cross,” he said, adding that a single inspection facility for all trucks, now randomly inspected at least twice – once in Thailand and in Malaysia – was being explored.
Narong said he had also met Works Minister Baru Bian on the proposals to build a bridge to connect Takbai in Narathiwat to Pengkalan Kubor in Tumpat, Kelantan, and another linking Rantau Panjang, Pasir Mas, to Sungai Golok, also in Narathiwat.
He said the Takbai-Pengkalan Kubor bridge would span 270m and have four lanes.
“If the roads connecting both ends of the bridge are included, the total length of the project will be 10.6km.
“This bridge is long overdue. The economic benefits are indeed immense. Thailand had already proposed the engineering design some years back,” he said.
~The Star~
Overload caused KTM server crash
KTM Bhd (KTMB) attributed “overwhelming demand” for ETS tickets that caused its ticketing servers to crash on Monday, frustrating tens of thousands of commuters.
The deluge, according to KTMB chief executive officer Datuk Kamarulzaman Zainal, came from the combination of demand associated with year-end school holidays, Christmas, Chinese New Year and Thaipusam, all of which was taking place from December until the end of February.
“We used to sell our tickets on a month-to-month basis but as we managed to secure a confirmed schedule from the contractor of the Klang Valley Double Track (KVDT) rehabilitation, we decided to open up the sale for the three-month block,” he told a press conference.
The KVDT rehabilitation is a massive project that had caused severe disruption to KTMB’s services running within the Klang Valley over the past few years as cargo, intercity, Komuter and ETS trains share either a pair of tracks and at work bottlenecks, only a single track.
Kamarulzaman said KTMB did its calculations before opening for the three-month block for sale on Monday.
“By our estimation, the ticketing system is supposed to be able to deal with the load,” he said adding that KTMB was also saddled with a “legacy” IT infrastructure that was purchased in 2000.
“It took up to 30 minutes to sell one ticket on Monday, and yesterday the time dropped to two minutes.
“We are truly sorry our customers had such an unpleasant experience,” he said, adding that the improvement was the result of several quick measures that were immediately implemented to address the situation.
Firstly, KTMB increased the bandwidth to its servers from 100Mbps to 200Mbps and secondly, it increased the number of central processing units used in its servers from 10 to 15.
For a longer-term solution, KTMB is embarking on a drive to embrace full digitisation of its infrastructure and services with substantial progress to be seen by the third quarter of next year.
“We already have a consultant studying our system so that it could be revamped.
“We expect to use ticketing systems that are on par with those used in aviation ticketing, as far as stability and reliability are concerned,” he said, adding that KTMB’s servers recorded nearly 400,000 users when sales opened, causing severe congestion.
Despite the chaos, KTMB still managed to sell up to 57,000 tickets by 10pm on Monday, with popular destinations being mostly north-bound, to places like Butterworth and Padang Besar.
A survey by The Star at KL Sentral yesterday found that a sense of calm had returned to the ticketing counters, with customers queuing calmly and orderly.
In Putrajaya, Transport Minister Anthony Loke expressed regret over Monday’s incident and said a substantial revamp of the ticketing system, which has weaknesses, was required.
“To this end, the ministry has directed KTMB to take remedial measures,” he said after attending a conference on bus rapid transit organised by Volvo Buses, Technology Depository Agency and Prasarana Malaysia Bhd.
~The Star~
Common signs 常见标语
BUKA
Open 开
TUTUP
Closed 关
MASUK
Entrance 入口
KELUAR
Exit 出口
TOLAK
Push推
TARIK
Pull 拉
TANDAS
Toilet 厕所
LELAKI
Men 男
WANITA / PEREMPUAN
Women 女
DILARANG MASUK
No Entry 不能进入
DILARANG MEROKOK
No Smoking 不能抽烟
JALAN SEHALA
One way traffic 单行道
浪高3公尺！交怡客船取消 776人困吉港口
来往浮罗交怡的客船因周五天气因素，海浪高3公尺，导致客船行程取消，逾776名乘客受困在吉打港口码头。
Ferry Line Ventures有限公司人力资源及运作经理峇哈林指出，受影响的客船行程分别是周五上午11时30分以及下午1时。
他说，之前在周五上午11时30分，载有418名乘客从吉打港口前往浮罗交怡的客船，因海浪汹涌被迫返回码头。
“从浮罗交怡前往吉打港口，另一艘载有178名乘客的客船，基于安全，转而驶向玻州港口码头”。
海浪冲进一艘载有轿车及乘客的渡轮内。
他说，为此该公司在玻州港口多加4趟船班，以方便吉打港口的乘客能继续前往浮罗交怡。至于从玻州前往浮罗交怡的客船则没面对问题。
此外，他也为乘客带来任何不便致歉。
另一方面，Langkawi kini脸书周六也流传一段约28秒的视频，贴文中指出海中央有大浪，海浪冲进一艘载有轿车及乘客的渡轮内。
该贴文也指不清楚该渡轮是前往浮罗交怡或往返吉打港口或玻州港口，希望全部能安全抵达。
~光华日报~
