E-visa Helps Malaysia to Attract More Chinese Tourists

Thanks to the implementation of the electronic visa (e-visa) from March 2015, Chinese tourist arrivals to Malaysia is picking up.

Since the e-visa was launched, 15,669 e-visa applications were received and 19,934 applications for electronic travel registration and information (ENTRI), Malaysian Ambassador to China Zainuddin Yahya said.

He made the comment during the launch of the Tourism Malaysia Pavilion at the Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) in Beijing Friday in the presence of Tourism Malaysia Beijing office Director Noran Ujang and Tourism Malaysia Chairman Wee Choo Keong.

E-visa is for applicants with a stay not exceeding 30 days and cost 200 yuan (RM128) in processing fee.

The ENTRI service is for those on a short trip not exceeding 15 days and cost 160 yuan (RM102) to process.

Applicants can register at www.windowmalaysia.my/evisa, the official website for Malaysian e-visa application.

However, lack of tech savvy and Internet facilities, especially at the inner part of China, restricted tourists from applying for visa online.

Zainuddin said Chinese travellers still preferred to walk-in for visa applications and as such more efforts must be made to raise awareness among the locals to apply visa online.

“About 10 per cent of them are applying for visa online while 90 per cent still prefer to walk-in to the visa centre to apply due to lack of awareness especially, among those from the interiors of China,” he added.

Zainuddin said the efforts were being made to increase awareness of applying visa online not only among tourists but also the business community, who travel to Malaysia.