Malaysia's Tourism Minister apologised a counple of days ago for the inconveniences caused to Singaporeans when the new fingerprint-scanning system was introduced since June. Speaking at the launch of Tourism Malaysia's latest publicity campaign at Marina Bay Sands, Dr Ng Yen Yen said: "I do apologise for the hiccups in the month of June and July when we first implemented the biometric system."
The biometric fingerprint-scanning system requires all commuters to have their fingers scanned to clear immigration. When it was first introduced on June, it caused a seven-hour jam along the Causeway, causing many motorists stuck in the jam to abort their trips.
The minister said that this had some negative impact as the number of tourists visiting Malaysia from Singapore registered a drop. As usual, she was unable to give figures on the dip. Dr Ng also noted that having "fast and easy" clearance at its immigration checkpoints is a factor which Singaporeans look out for.
What she should be telling the Singaporeans was to use the second crossing or agree to the building of the bridge over the causeway.
Unveiling Tourism Malaysia's latest bus advertisements, she said Malaysia is taking steps to improve the immigration system.
Last year, tourists from Singapore made some 13 million trips to Malaysia, constituting more than half of the 24.6 million visitors to Malaysia. Singapore contributed RM28.4 billion (S$11.6 billion) in tourism dollars out of the total of RM56.5 billion.
Actually spending money on bus advertisement is a stupid idea. Being close to Malaysia, Singaporeans would have no problem coming here except that we need to improve clearance process at both entry points. Some money should be spent on providing awareness campaign amongst Immigration officers on how to handle peak periods at the crossings.
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