KOTA KINABALU: Chinese visa requirements are being constantly evaluated to adapt with changing times, said Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun.
“We need to adjust our policies to suit with changing times and I think we lose out to other countries if we don’t,” said the minister after launching the Borneo International Orchid Show 2015 here yesterday.
According to Masidi, for the next six months, starting from October 1, Chinese visas are exempted for groups of 20.
“I think that is a good period to do evaluations of the issues and possibly to make it easier for the Chinese to come in a smaller number of groups,” he said.
“Travel trends among the Chinese have changed, they are now travelling in smaller groups of four or five in a family. I think we need to take that into consideration. It is in conjunction with the need for more people to visit Sabah so we can make more money in the tourism industry.
“We are constantly evaluating it all the time. And you will be surprised that even my counterpart in Federal also agrees that there is a need for the government to re-examine the conditions of at least 20 people traveling with the same group in order to qualify for free visa,” he emphasized.