Southeast Asia’s Haze Lands on Malaysia’s Already Flat Tourism Year

Photo Credit: The Kuala Lumpur skyline featuring the Petronas Twin Towers, a popular tourist attraction. Freepik / lifeforstock Malaysia’s inbound tour operators are reporting November cancellations, Indonesia has logged more than 2,600 disrupted domestic flights, and sightseeing itineraries in Singapore are being cut short as haze from Indonesian forest and peatland fires settles over the region ahead of year-end travel. “We are seeing reports of reduced bookings and cancellations among some inbound tour operators, particularly for November travel,” Mohd Khalid Harun, president of the Malaysia Tourism Agency Association (MATA), told Skift. The timing is poor for Malaysia, whose tourism promotion board, Visit Malaysia, set a target of 47 million international visitors this year. But that goal was already out of reach before the haze arrived. Months of wildfires in Indonesia have blanketed parts of neighboring Malaysia and Singapore in hazardous haze, Reuters reported. At one point in October, three of the region’s cities — Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore —