3000 Chinese Tourists Cancelled Trip to Malaysia and Visit Thailand Due to New Tourism Tax
3000 Chinese Tourists Cancelled Trip to Malaysia and Visit Thailand Due to New Tourism Tax
Remember our story on the Malaysia New Tourism Tax for Hotels, Hostels and Homestays? Well, looks like it started to affect our tourism industry even it is not implemented yet. According to a news report by TheBorneoPost.com titled ‘Cancellation of trips by Chinese tourists alarming’, a huge number of Chinese tourists cancelled their trip to Malaysia due to the new Tourism Tax.
“Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah described the cancellation of trips by 3,000 Chinese tourists to Malaysia and choosing Thailand as their preferred destination as alarming.
“This is what Malaysian Association of Hotels has informed me too and the reason why I wanted to have the enforcement date deferred and not to rush through the tourism tax. I will hold on temporarily,” he said when reacting to a front page article quoting Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (Maceos) acting vice-president Gracie Geikie as saying that these tourists had cancelled their plans because they had to pay tourism tax of about RM100,000.”
You can read the news ‘Cancellation of trips by Chinese tourists alarming’ here and ‘Trip cancellations show wrong time to enforce tourism tax’ here.
Many locals prefer to Cuti-Cuti Malaysia due to low travel cost and ideal for family travels. With the new Tourism Tax, Cuti-Cuti Malaysia will be pricier even though it is ‘dekat je’.
There are now reports that the New Tourism Tax will deferred to Aug 1st but there are no official words yet. We just have to wait for the official announcement.
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