Mohd Akbal Setia, Malaysia’s vice president of Tourism for the Americas, is in Cuba on a two-day visit

Havana, July 19 (RHC) Malaysia and Cuba are exploring their cooperation potential in tourism, key to their economic development.

Mohd Akbal Setia, Malaysia’s vice president of Tourism for the Americas, is making a two-day visit, Tuesday and Wednesday, with the aim of improving bilateral relations focused on this industry, which is very important for their respective economies.

Akbal Setia expressed that he held a meeting with officials from the Cuban Ministry of the branch, with whom he agreed that their respective countries have potential to establish profitable cooperation in this field for mutual benefit.

He noted that work can be done to promote vacation travel in both directions and explore other opportunities.

In his presentation, the executive whose office is based in Los Angeles, United States, outlined the richness and diversity of the tourism product and the Malaysian destinations it received before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out at the beginning of 2020 with an average of 26 million visitors per year.

Due to the pandemic, arrivals plummeted from 26.1 million in 2019 to 4,332,722 in 2020, a figure that bottomed out in 2021 with only 134,728 tourists who set foot on Malaysian soil.

Akbal Setia explained that Malaysia is engaged in boosting the travel industry in order to return to pre-pandemic flows. This Southeast Asian nation was forced, like many others, to close borders in 2020 and during 2021, which was a severe blow to this sector.

In 2022, when the doors began to reopen, the number of visitors rose to almost 3 million, a figure still insufficient since it represents only 12 percent of the arrivals in 2019. Authorities of the sphere indicated that 2023 began more auspiciously and thanks to enormous promotional efforts they aspire to reach 16 million arrivals.

The Vice President of Tourism for the Americas of Malaysia recalled that as a sanitary measure, they first opened establishments in the destination of Langkawi, which became a large bubble where travelers had to stay for 17 days before being able to go on to other vacation poles.

Industry executives estimate that Malaysia will be able to recover the existing tourist flow before the pandemic in another two years.

As a specialist in the area, Akbal Setia commented that the main issuing market in the Americas is the United States, while in Latin America they are Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

"We would like to have even a very small group from Cuba, and that Malaysian travelers enjoy the destinations that the island has, and thus start a new era in our bilateral ties in tourism," the official said. (Source: PL)