Malaysia travel business frets as skies hazy again
Malaysia travel business frets as skies hazy again
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia's travel industry expressed fears on Friday that the haze from Indonesian forest fires, which has driven away foreign tourists in the past, is posing a fresh threat to local businesses.
Malaysia sees its peak season for Arab tourists between now and September and tour operators said the recurrence of the acrid-smelling haze, after a brief respite last month, could hurt new bookings and arrivals.
Visibility in Kuala Lumpur was down to about five kilometers on Friday as dust particles from forest fires in Indonesia combined with the dense humidity and local air pollution to create the stifling haze that residents have come to dread.
The fires are mainly due to illegal slash-and-burn cultivation on plantations on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.
"I'm afraid if this is prolonged, and the air quality gets any worse, we could start seeing some very undesirable things happening to our business," said a local tour agent who handles mainly Arab and European travellers.
Tourism is Malaysia's second biggest foreign exchange earner. Middle Eastern tourists, who begin flocking in from July to escape the desert heat at home, are among the biggest spenders.
The air quality in parts of a Malaysian city on Kalimantan Island was declared unhealthy on Friday as smoke from fires set to clear land in Indonesia enveloped much of neighboring Malaysia in haze, the government said.
The Department of Environment said air quality in the Petra Jaya suburb in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak state, was downgraded from "moderate" to "unhealthy." Air quality in 51 other monitoring stations across the country ranged from "moderate" to "good," the statement said.
Officials were not immediately available for further details.
The cross-border pollution from Indonesia, an annual occurrence for more than 10 years, has at times affected neighboring Singapore and southern Thailand as well.
The haze hit tourism in Malaysia so badly in 1997 that the government has made the air pollution index a state secret since.
The haze drifted over in June, but dissipated after Jakarta stepped up enforcement against illegal forest clearing. But Indonesian officials said even then that the problem could last at least another month.