More Chinese tourists are expected next year as new airline routes and destinations between Malaysia and China are launched and with the extension of the simplified visa application process for short stays.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysia Airlines would be flying to eight new destinations in China on 11 new routes beginning January.

“This translates into 35 additional frequencies,” he said when launching the Alitrip Malaysia Tourism Pavilion which is being developed with e-commerce icon, Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group, here yesterday.

Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz announced that the government had extended the e-Visa and Electronic Travel Registration and Information (ENTRI) facility for Chinese tourist on 15-day visits until next year.

From March 1, Chinese tourists can enter Malaysia without hassle as they can apply for visa online and print the e-visa on their own. This facility was supposed to end on December 31.

Nazri described the partnership between the Tourism Promotion Board and Alibaba Group as a quantum leap in facilitating tourist arrivals from China.

He said besides Malaysia Airlines, the AirAsia Group had become the biggest international foreign airline operating in China, offering 313 flights a week between both countries.

“Also there are 26 chartered flights operating between both countries,” he said.

He said Chinese travellers constituted the largest source of tourists in 2015.

He added that nearly 1.7 million tourists from China visited Malaysia in the first eight months of this year as compared to 1.4 million Chinese tourists over same period last year, which is a 26.3 per cent growth in arrivals.

“We are now eyeing four million tourist  in 2018 and eight million tourists by 2020.”

Najib also said, in a Bernama report, that among the new connections — Nanjing, Haikou, Wuhan and Fuzhou — were expected to be in MAS’ routes in the first half of next year.

Najib said he was informed Malaysia Airlines would be upgrading the Kuala Lumpur-Hong Kong service to a widebody Airbus A330 from January, as well as introduce the Kuala Lumpur–Haikou service.

“There will be a second daily service to Shanghai’s Pudong airport as well as new connections to Nanjing, Wuhan and Fuzhou, which will follow suit in the first half of 2017,” he said.

He said new services to Chengdu and Chongqing would also be introduced from Kuala Lumpur, subject to availability of slots.

“And beyond that, Malaysia Airlines will begin to gradually add services from cities such as Penang and Kota Kinabalu to cities across China such as Shanghai and Shenzhen.

“All of these new routes will hopefully spur even more visitors from China to Malaysia as their preferred destination; a choice that is made even simpler with the convenience of the Malaysia Pavilion on Alitrip.com,” he added.

Najib hoped the Singles’ Day Sale on November 11 would benefit Malaysia Pavilion on Alitrip.

“Last year, on that very same date, Alibaba broke all records with US$143 billion (RM600 billion) sales in one day.

“I am sure with the growing presence of Alibaba in the online marketplace today, you will be enjoying another record-breaking achievement this time around,” he said.