November-December. 2025
06 Cover
Chua Choon Hwa.
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A strategic direction
Malaysia advances an inclusive, data-driven, and globally competitive approach to tourism growth
MALAYSIA’ S tourism sector is moving in a strategic direction to ensure its growth aligns with national agendas such as the MADANI Economy and the 13th Malaysia Plan.
This approach focuses on building a sustainable, inclusive, and high-value tourism industry that supports local communities and strengthens Malaysia’ s global competitiveness.
It also aims to reinforce policy frameworks that position Malaysia as an inclusive global tourism hub that serves diverse market segments, including the growing Muslim-friendly travel market.
Leading the 2025 Malaysia Sales Mission Series 2, Chua Choon Hwa, Deputy Secretary-General( Tourism) of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture( MOTAC), explained that the mission’ s focus on Hangzhou, Taiyuan, and Xi’ an was strategic.
These cities were selected for their significant Muslim communities, offering substantial potential for Malaysia’ s Muslim-friendly tourism offerings.
With China’ s population of 1.4 billion, including around 18 million Muslims, targeting these destinations enables Malaysia to strengthen engagement and tap into a promising, growing market segment.
“ In Xi’ an, there are about 65,000
The launching of Malaysia Sales
Mission to China.
“ One of the challenges we face is in data collection. We receive millions of visitors from China, nearly five million up to August, but we currently cannot distinguish between Muslim and non-Muslim Chinese tourists. To address this, we are working to introduce incentives for tour agencies to share more accurate data with us. This will help us measure how successful we are in promoting Muslim-friendly tourism in Malaysia and in capturing this specific market segment from China.”
- Chua Choon Hwa.
Muslims; in Hangzhou, 117,000; and in Taiyuan, around 90,000. These cities are relatively affluent, offering greater travel potential,” said Chua.
“ All three also have Umrah agencies, which present collaboration opportunities for Malaysia to position itself as an Umrah hub through the Islamic Tourism Centre( ITC).
“ Importantly, they each have direct flight connections to Malaysia- eight weekly from Xi’ an, 18 from Hangzhou, and newly launched routes from Taiyuan in September 2025. These factors made them ideal destinations for the sales mission.
“ During the trip, we saw strong