KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — Some Malaysian travel agents were immediately impacted by the Iran war with an estimated 2,800 cancellations of tour packages in the first week itself.
Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) president Mint Leong said 800 of these cancellations were from Iran on the very first day of the conflict, while an estimated 2,000 were from other regions in the first few days.
“When the war started, we straightaway received cancellations from tourists from Iran — immediate drop by about 800 tourists from Iran,” she told Malay Mail, noting that this is usually the peak period for Iranian tourists visiting Malaysia.
Leong said the conflict had resulted in flight cancellations at airports in the Middle East such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Muscat in Oman; pointing out that these are transit hubs for passengers flying to Asia from Europe, the Americas, Africa and Russia.
“So due to the war, we not only lose tourists from Iran, Middle East, we actually lose tourists from all over the world,” she said.
MITA has about 1,000 active members with about 70 per cent being travel agents, with 30 of these travel agencies taking the biggest hit as they focus on tourists from Iran and the Middle East.
“They need to explore new markets for them to survive, because they don’t know when they are going to come back,” she said, referring to these particular agencies.
She said travel agents cannot rely on Malaysians to make up for the loss in business from overseas tourists, as local travellers tend to travel independently and only use tour agencies for trips such as those sponsored by companies.
Enquiries coming in but future travel to Malaysia still on hold
Leong said MITA members have not received more cancellations after the initial impact, but noted tourists are currently only making new enquiries and not snapping up travel packages.
“Those who already planned their trip and wanted to come to Malaysia in March and April, those have already cancelled. Now, we already started to get enquiries for the second half of the year, but this is only stuck at enquiry, so they are still monitoring the situation — whether the war will end or not,” she said.
The week after Hari Raya Aidilfitri is usually the peak season in Malaysia for Middle East tourists, but Leong said enquiries from such tourists has been “quite slow compared with the past year”.
“Some of our agents are getting enquiries for June, July, and August which is summer holidays, also from the Middle East, but all only stopped at enquiry only, there is no confirmation,” she said, indicating reasons such as concerns over flights, safety and the ongoing war.
Leong said tourists from Europe and Russia can bypass the Middle East, by using alternative transit hubs such as China to fly into Malaysia.
“Because for the past few years, our minister has been helping the industry open up the routes from China. Nowadays we have more than 400 flights direct from China to Malaysia, for many cities in China,” she said.
