Malaysia to renew tourism roadshows in China: minister

Malaysia will resume travel roadshows in China this summer while doing all to find the missing flight MH370, Malaysian Minister of Tourism Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri said Monday.

Malaysia will resume tourism promotion activities in China in the coming summer, after all such events have been canceled since the MH370 flight tragedy last year, said the minister, answering questions raised by Xinhua, at a press conference on the first day of an Arabian tourism fair.

Malaysia Airline flight MH370 vanished from radar screens on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people onboard, including 154 Chinese nationals.

The Malaysian government fully understands the huge sorrow the Chinese victims' relatives have gone through, said the minister.

Nevertheless, Malaysia is planning to restore tourism promotion roadshows in China so as to regain trust from tourists of the country with the world's biggest population, he said, adding that the first one is scheduled to take place "after the Islamic month of fasting (Ramadan)", which will be in the second half of July.

Visitors from China, traditionally a strong source of Malaysia's tourism market, dropped 9.9 percent last year, he said.

"Compared with 2013, we lost 600,000 Chinese visitors last year," while the first quarter of this year did not see any improvement, Nazri said.

The Malaysian government is working closely with the Chinese side to strengthen search efforts to find the missing aircraft "or at least any wreckage of it," he stressed. Endi