Malaysia Could Lose $1.3 Billion In Tourism Revenue Due To MH370 Controversy
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The Malaysian economy could lose nearly $1.3 billion in tourism revenue this year, according to analysts speaking to the South China Morning Post, with many Chinese tourists now cancelling their trips following the controversy surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The Malaysian economy could lose nearly $1.3 billion in tourism revenue this year, according to analysts speaking to the South China Morning Post, with many Chinese tourists now cancelling their trips following the controversy surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
“In the two weeks after the incident, we have seen the number of clients from northern China going to Malaysia declining 50 per cent compared with the same period last year, including group and independent travellers,” told Dun Jidong, a senior marketing manager at Ctrip.com, China’s largest travel booking website, to SCMP.
Eleven Chinese travel agents Reuters spoke to also claimed that bookings between China and Malaysia had fallen severely, while many people have canceled their trips, amid anger at the perceived lack of information provided by the Malaysian government to passengers’ families.
Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after take-off on March 8 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. More than half of the passengers were Chinese; and little is still known about the plane’s fate.
Luo Juan, a senior analyst with market research company Forward Information, told SCMP that she predicted Chinese arrivals in Malaysia this year would drop by 20-40 percent.
“This would represent 400,000 to 800,000 tourists,” said Luo. If each tourist spent an average of 10,000 yuan ($1,609) during the stay, the total loss could rise to as much as 8 billion yuan ($1.29 billion), Luo added.
Related: Chinese Tourists Top The World In Spending, Seen As “Walking Wallets”
Related: Tourism Industry In Malaysia
According to Tourism Malaysia, China is the third largest source of tourists to the country – with 1.79 million Chinese visiting last year.
Chinese tourist arrivals account for about 12 percent of Malaysia’s total tourists and 0.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, noted Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
A China International travel agent told SCMP that the MH370 saga may not only affect tourism in Malaysia.
“The impact has spread to most destinations in Southeast Asia including Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore,” the travel agent said. ““Many of our travel packages include Malaysia and Thailand and people are reluctant to go there not only because of the missing plane, but also Thailand’s political turmoil.”
