{"id":24941,"date":"2026-01-01T16:20:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T08:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=24941"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T08:20:35","slug":"malaysias-tourism-minister-urges-warmer-welcomes-after-less-than-friendly-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=24941","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia\u2019s tourism minister urges warmer welcomes after \u2018less than friendly\u2019 complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/01\/01\/82147e70-f648-4d44-8559-70eb02bf5c35_e21eb418.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\"><span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Malaysia<\/span>\u2019s tourism minister has urged the public to be more friendly to visitors and take cleanliness seriously as the country ramps up preparations for <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Visit Malaysia 2026<\/span>, after several government agencies flagged complaints from <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">tourists<\/span> about rude treatment when they sought help.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Speaking on New Year\u2019s Day at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing said he had asked for explanations after receiving the feedback.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI have received complaints and have sought explanations from the relevant agencies. They informed me that when tourists ask for help, some members of the public have been less than friendly and even appeared irritated,\u201d he told reporters, as quoted by The Edge Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Such encounters, Tiong warned, could affect the perceptions of Malaysia by international travellers at a time when the government was intensifying efforts to promote the country.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI urge everyone to work together to prove that our country is a very welcoming nation and that our culture must reflect a warm attitude towards tourists from all over the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The comments were made as Tiong greeted and handed out souvenirs to international passengers during Visit Malaysia 2026 promotional activities at the airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/health-environment\/article\/3338392\/malaysias-tourism-minister-urges-warmer-welcomes-after-less-friendly-complaints?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malaysia\u2019s tourism minister has urged the public to be more friendly to visitors and take cleanliness seriously as the country ramps up preparations for Visit&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[4283,3317,4409,1213,5058,4024,8273,2488],"class_list":["post-24941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-complaints","tag-friendly","tag-malaysias","tag-minister","tag-tourism","tag-urges","tag-warmer","tag-welcomes","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}