Tourism players are keeping their fingers crossed that tourism arrivals will hit the five million mark by the end of the year.

Having already reached the one million mark since the country's borders were reopened on April 1, they believe that the target is achievable, given Malay-sia's position on the tourism front.

Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) president Datuk Tan Kok Liang said Malaysia currently had the upper hand in boosting its tourism industry given that most Covid-19 restrictions had been lifted.

He said while Tourism Malaysia had announced that 600,000 of the recent one million arrivals were from Singapore, industry players were looking forward to those from India, Australia and Europe.

He said the association was expecting international tourist counts to hit five million people by the end of this year.

"Industry players on the ground have relayed positive feedback of many tour bookings made by travellers from India.

"We're also seeing a lot of interest from visitors from Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan and some parts of Europe," he told the New Straits Times.

Tourism, Arts And Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri had on Saturday said that Malaysia had managed to draw over a million tourists to its shores since its borders were reopened on April 1.

She said while the majority of visitors hailed from Singapore, the ministry was expecting even more to arrive from Japan, Iran and South Korea.

The minister had also touched on problems faced by hoteliers in coping with the increase in tourists, such as a lack of workers.

Malaysian Association of Hotels president Christina Toh, speaking to the NST, agreed with the assessment and said hotels were facing an acute shortage of workers in key areas.

"There are shortages of staff in key areas such as housekeeping and stewarding, as well as in the kitchen side and the servers."

Toh said the association had reached out to local employers to fill in vacancies in hotels, especially as hoteliers were rushing to jumpstart their businesses.

"We've done multiskilling and reskilling of our current hotel employees, and we are also reaching out for part-timers.

"But we are hoping the Human Resources Ministry would expedite approving permits for foreign workers."