Destinations known | Chinese tourists will be educated on how to behave in Malaysia, even though they already know, says ambassador

Malaysia has big plans for its tourism industry; the Southeast Asian nation hopes to attract 30 million visitors willing to collectively spend 100 billion ringgit (US$24 billion) by the end of 2020. To achieve this, the prime minister, 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, has launched the aptly named Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign, declaring in July, “we need to connect and reach out to ‘high yield’ markets […] namely Asean, China, India, the United Kingdom and Germany”, during a speech at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Last year, Malaysia earned 84.1 billion ringgit from the almost 26 million visitors who came, with neighbours Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand and Brunei leading the charge as the largest source markets. On November 6, The New Straits Times reported that Tourism Malaysia would be partnering with Chinese travel services and social media platform Mafengwo in an attempt to raise the number of arrivals from the Middle Kingdom from 2.9 million in 2018 to 3.5 million, in conjunction with the Visit Malaysia 2020 programme.

However, with more tourists comes more potential misbehaviour, and few are aware of this as much as Bai Tian. China’s ambassador to Malaysia recently acknowledged that the embassy had received complaints regarding the misconduct of mainland Chinese travellers in Malaysia, according to a November 24 article in English-language newspaper The Star. Speaking at a forum on China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Kuala Lumpur, Bai acknowledged that this was a cause of embarrassment for his government, although he maintained, “The Chinese have a civilisation dating back 5,000 years and we know how to behave properly and not offend others.”

Some of the more memorable incidents of Chinese tourists acting improperly include a pair whose “hot dance” in front of the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque last year saw them fined and kicked out of the Muslim-majority country. The Chinese consulate responded with a statement reminding its citizens that they “must abide by the laws and regulations of the country of their destination, respect local traditions and customs, follow guides’ arrangements and should by no means address religious taboos. They should safeguard the good image of Chinese tourists”.