KUCHING: The Ministry of Tourism will strive to open more routes and flight frequencies between Malaysia and Indonesia to meet the growing market demand.
Its minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said there will soon be an increase in flights serving the Malaysia-Indonesia route in response to the sharp increase in the number of arrivals from Indonesia.
“Malaysia welcomed 247,889 and 222,923 visitors from Indonesia in January and February of this year, respectively, a significant increase compared to 1,714 and 1,756 arrivals recorded in January and February last year.
“This clearly indicates that Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s tourism sectors are recovering well,” he said in a Facebook post.
He added that in 2022, the total number of Indonesian tourist arrivals reached 1.48 million.
“As of April this year, Indonesia has reopened 12 entry points, with 482 weekly flights between Indonesia and Malaysia, totalling 83,276 seats.
“However, this is still only 70.2 per cent of the pre-pandemic period when there were 685 weekly flights in February 2020.
“As AirAsia is starting its twice-weekly Kertajati-Kuala Lumpur route on May 17, it will also add the Jakarta-Kuching route, flying three times weekly,” he said.
As the country welcomes more visitors from Indonesia, he said, it is expected that the total number of arrivals will exceed the 1.48 million recorded last year, but the current number of flights cannot yet cope with this trend of increasing visitor volume.
“In view of this, I have requested the Indonesian office of the Malaysian Tourism Board to ramp up engagement with the Indonesian government and their tourism counterparts to increase direct flights with Malaysian states to meet market demand.
“We are committed to increasing the number of flights between our two countries, especially during the peak holiday periods,” he said.
This, he said, would greatly stimulate the mutual tourism industry and promote economic development while building stronger links between the peoples of the two countries.
“We will continue to cooperate closely with the Indonesian government to jointly promote tourism development for the benefit of the economies and people of Malaysia and Indonesia,” said Tiong.
