Chinese tourists, angry over missing plane, shun Malaysia

Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after take-off on March 8 on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

"The Malaysian government deliberately delayed publicising real information about the flight. We should punish this completely irresponsible attitude and boycott Malaysian tourism," said a user of Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

"Originally I was considering travelling in Malaysia this year, now I think their country is so disgusting," wrote another microblogger. "They lied to everyone for half a month."

The slowdown in Chinese travel could hurt Malaysia's goal of boosting tourism, though the impact on the economy may be limited. Chinese tourist arrivals account for about 12 percent of Malaysia's total tourists and 0.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note.

Malaysia has targeted 28 million tourists this year and 76 billion ringgit ($23 billion) in receipts.

Some Chinese travel agencies have cancelled group trips to Malaysia and stopped promoting cut-price tickets for fear of angering customers.

"The Malaysia Airlines incident involves national sentiment. If we go against the trend now, I'm afraid it will be provocative," said a travel agent surnamed Xu with another firm.

According to an online poll on Sina's news website, 77.5 percent of more than 21,000 participants said the MH370 furore would influence their decision on travelling in Malaysia.

Malaysian Tourism Minister Nazri Aziz said on Monday that "Visit Malaysia Year" roadshows in China would be halted until the MH370 case is closed.