The Visit Malaysia Year 2014 campaign will remain suspended in China as long as there is no resolution in the search for the missing flight MH370, says Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz today.

The culture and tourism minister said the Chinese were still in a state of shock and it would be inappropriate to resume the campaign at the current time.

“Until there is resolution to this matter, it is best not to continue with it there,” he told reporters today.

Nazri today conceded that MH370 had affected the number of tourist arrivals from China.

“Tourists arrivals from China was about 1.6 million last year and I will not lie that arrivals from China are down. We have to accept that there will be some fallout from this.

“At this time, we must respect Chinese feelings and do what we can to help the affected families,” he said.

Eleven Chinese travel agents had told Reuters last month that bookings between China and Malaysia had fallen severely and that many people had cancelled their trips, amid anger at the perceived lack of information provided by Putrajaya to families of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.

“We used to have 30 to 40 customers a month for group tours to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Now there is no one asking about this route or booking,” a travel agent surnamed Chen told Reuters.

“Tourists don’t even consider going there. Many also have a negative impression of the country now,” said Chen with Comfort Travel, in the southern city of Guangzhou, which focuses heavily on Southeast Asian tours.

Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after take-off on March 8 on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

The slowdown in Chinese travel could hurt Malaysia’s goal of boosting tourism, although the impact on the economy may be limited.

Chinese tourist arrivals account for about 12% of Malaysia’s total tourist arrivals and 0.4% of gross domestic product, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note.

Malaysia has targeted 28 million tourists this year and RM76 billion in receipts.

Some Chinese travel agencies have cancelled group trips to Malaysia and stopped promoting cut-price tickets for fear of angering customers.

“The Malaysia Airlines incident involves national sentiment. If we go against the trend now, I’m afraid it will be provocative,” said a travel agent surnamed Xu with another firm.

According to an online poll on Sina’s news website, 77.5% of more than 21,000 participants said the MH370 furore would influence their decision on travelling in Malaysia.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com