KOTA KINABALU: Government departments are urged to work with the private sector, especially non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to attract more Chinese tourists to Malaysia.
The Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) said tour operators often faced problems that government departments could address.
"But despite many written requests to meet department heads for discussions, we have been unable to secure appointments," said Satta chairman Datuk Seri Winston Liaw.
"We need to hold a talk between department teams and NGOs every three months to solve problems.
"The talk is needed to boost our services, which will take our tourism industry to greater heights."
Liaw said this following reports by the World Travel and Tourism Council and Oxford Economics that Chinese tourists would spend their holidays at home this year.
A total of 1,474,114 Chinese tourists came to Malaysia last year, a growth of 593.4 per cent, or 212,603 arrivals, compared with the same period in 2022.
This year, however, Chinese tourists were visiting cities closer to home, opting for smaller towns and crowds, he said.
"Chinese spending power has dropped due to a sluggish economy, not returning to pre-Covid-19 levels."
Many companies and civil servants, especially those whose salaries had increased tremendously in the past 10 years, were facing wage cuts, he said.
"They strive to maintain their standard of living and won't commit or spend on luxurious products."
The federal and state governments, along with the private sector, should target the high-end markets, he said.
"We need to diversify our markets to focus on educational tourism, wellness tourism, sports tourism, cultural tourism and musical tourism."
These markets could generate higher tourism receipts compared with pre-Covid-19 levels in Sabah, he said.
"During the pandemic, tour operators focused on low-end tourist arrivals.
"Despite meeting the targeted numbers in arrivals, the economy did not benefit much from them."
State Tourism, Culture, and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew said Chinese tourists' arrival in Sabah had overtaken South Korea as the largest source of international arrivals for the first four months of this year.
She said this during a courtesy call by Xiamen Airlines' Kuala Lumpur office general manager Gao Ya Shuang and its sales manager, Li Changzhao, recently.
Gao briefed Liew on the airlines' plan to resume flights from Fuzhou (the capital of Fujian Province) to Kota Kinabalu from June 27.