By Harizah Hanim Mohamed

MANCHESTER, Sept 28 -- Ace-listed travel management company, Parlo Bhd, is hoping the government will include some measures to relax visa applications for inbound tourism under the 2020 Budget.

Chief executive officer Dani Yap said the company is looking forward to positive announcements from the government to boost the tourism industry, adding that the relaxation of visa requirements for inbound tourists, particularly those from China and India, will help to grow the industry.

"Although Parlo is less active in the inbound portion, we believe that the relaxation of visa requirements is better than getting an extra budget for the industry," he said when contacted via email.

In May, Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said that the government plans to ease the entry requirements for Chinese tourists in conjunction with the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign.

The government had previously added more visa-on-arrival (VOA) facilities for tourists from China and India.

The facilities had been extended at the arrival gates of six main airports around the country, including the Langkawi International Airport, Miri International Airport and the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah International Airport. 

Malaysia targets to attract 30 million international tourists and collect about RM100 billion in tourist receipts through the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign.

Last year, the country received RM84.1 billion in overall tourism receipts -- RM12.3 billion of which from Chinese tourists. 

Meanwhile, Parlo's subsidiary, Parlo Tours Sdn Bhd, has launched T-Broker, an online platform marketplace to make it easy for travel agents to sell its products.

"Agents can access the T-Broker Marketplace on a round-the-clock basis to check on tour packages, special deals or travel services offered by the company and its travel partners.

“With T-Broker Marketplace, we can extend our offerings such as travel insurance and flexible independent travel package components to all agents," Yap said.

He said the platform focused on business-to-business engagements and enabled seamless and faster transactions. 

"There are also better deals that can be found on the platform, and agents can serve their clients more efficiently,” he said.

Yap added that the company has set an internal target to achieve at least a 10 per cent growth from its distribution networks through T-Broker Marketplace, which will allow it to expand its distribution network through faster and more efficient processing time for clients. 

-- BERNAMA