SEPANG – The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) said that approximately 10,000 international travellers are scheduled to arrive at Malaysia by air today.
According to its Minister, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, from that amount, 110 flights have landed or will be landling at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and KLIA2.
“Five flights have landed since last night, more will be landing. Approximately 10,000 tourists will arrive at KLIA today.
“It’s not just about KLIA, KLIA2 but we also have Bukit Kayu Hitam, Langkawi, Johor and Penang,” she said in a news conference after welcoming the arrival of Etihad Airways EY418 which landed at 10.16 am today.
283 passengers which consisted of international tourists and Malaysian citizens were on that flight.
According to Nancy, the amount did not include tourists that arrive in the country via land.
Last March, Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that the country will reopen its borders to foreign countries today.
Meanwhile, Nancy said, MOTAC targeted an income of RM8.6 billion from the tourism sector this year.
The target is set after several neighbouring countries also reopened their national borders.
“We are optimistic that the amount will change soon after Singapore reopens their border. It will be easy to reach millions within two weeks. More flights will also be landing soon from other countries.
“At the moment, our target is two million tourists and I think that we can update the target in a month.
“Perhaps we can get more than that. For the time being, we are studying the target of two million tourists and we hope to achieve that in three months.
“We also hope to get RM8.6 billion as we got before the pandemic,” she said during the same news conference. -MalaysiaGazette
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