Greater efforts needed to drive tourism

Malaysia must step up its efforts to promote tourism in a big way, as failure to do so will see us losing out on the all-important tourist dollar.

TWENTY-nine million!

That was the total number of tourist arrivals to Malaysia in 2023, of which some 20.1 million were foreign tourists while the balance 8.8 million were foreign excursionists or day trippers.

The 20.1 million foreign tourists spent RM71.3bil last year, or RM3,540 per person.

Singapore remains Malaysia’s largest source of foreign tourist arrivals with some 8.3 million arrivals accounting for 41.2% of the total, while a total of 6.5 million were excursionist arrivals, accounting for 73.9% of the total day trippers. As Malaysia’s main tourism market, there were 14.8 million arrivals from Singapore or 51.2% of total arrivals.

The rest of the Asean countries are the next biggest market segment, with 26.6% of total tourist arrivals while China and India tourist arrivals accounted for 8.2% of the total.

Minus the day trippers, Malaysia is targeting total foreign tourist arrivals of 27.3 million this year with tourism receipts of RM102.7bil.

Figures for 2025 and 2026 are also impressive with a target total tourist arrivals of 31.4 million next year and 35.6 million in the “Visit Malaysia Year 2026” respectively, according to the Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister.

In terms of revenue projection, Malaysia is expected to record total tourist dollars to the tune of RM125.5bil next year and RM147.1bil in 2026.

From the figures, it is also apparent that Malaysia expects tourism expenditure per person to increase to RM3,761 this year, up 6.3% year-on-year (y-o-y), while for 2025 and 2026, the per capita expenditure is expected to jump to RM3,997 and RM4,132, a further increase of 6.3% and 3.3% y-o-y respectively.

Despite being an “aged” slogan, “Malaysia Truly Asia”, which was launched in 1999, remains the tagline to attract foreign tourists into the country as it showcases Malaysia’s multi-racial composition and religions as well as diversity in our culture and festivities.

Tourism Malaysia has done a great job in promoting Malaysia abroad as seen by the increase in foreign tourist arrivals last year and the expectations that are being placed for this year and over the next two years.

However, as an ageing slogan, Malaysia needs to promote the country differently, capitalising on social networks, being visible at global events, and finding new ways to market the country’s unique offerings.

Malaysia has an abundance of opportunities to capitalise on and this is not just restricted to our diverse food, flora and fauna and festivals, but also other forms of offerings like medical and sports tourism, as well as learning from the success that Taylor Swift brought to Singapore early this year – concert tourism.Malaysia must capitalise on and promote various product offerings to attract tourism into the country, as the spillover effect is huge both in terms of economic growth as well as employment.

Conference tourism is another niche offering and Malaysia surely has one of the most advanced offerings when it comes to event venues, which include the KLCC Convention Centre, the Malaysian Trade and International Centre or Mitec and Penang’s Setia Spice Convention Centre.

The country has many product offerings but they are not marketed enough.

For example, we have the Tip of Borneo in Sabah and the Southern Tip of Asia in Tanjong Piai, Johor.

We have a vast and amazing floral showcase at Cameron Flora Park as well as the Mossy Forest.

Every other state in Malaysia has unique offerings and this is not just restricted to tourist hot spots.

Perak is also the home of a 130 million-year-old rainforest – The Royal Belum State Park.

Sabah has an abundance of paradise islands that will even put Maldives to shame and not to forget the beauty of Kundasang as well as places like Putrajaya, the Niah and Mulu Caves and traditional tourist favourite cities like Melaka, Penang, Langkawi, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, and of course, Kuala Lumpur.

Tourism is a big component of many Asean countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, where tourism’s share of gross domestic product (GDP) ranges from as low as 4% to as high as 20% in Thailand.

Malaysia must step up its efforts to promote tourism in a big way, as failure to do so will see us losing out on the all-important tourist dollar.

With the weak ringgit, tourism is a natural attraction for foreign tourists but they must be fed with the right information not only on tourist attractions but also the reality on the ground in terms of how tourists are treated as well as what is socially acceptable in a Muslim country like ours.

An added benefit is to market the country as having relatively cheap hotel rates when compared with the region.

The country is seeing relatively low occupancy rates of less than 60% with an average daily rate of less than RM300 per night. The lower price is certainly an attractive incentive for more tourists to visit Malaysia.

Our airports, being the first touch-point for any tourist visiting Malaysia, need to be not only in excellent condition, but the services that are provided must be top-notch to enable these tourists to have a positive mindset the moment they touch down and enter the country via seamless and efficient immigration, customs and baggage handling systems.

Yes, we have issues at our main airport now, but these must be addressed as soon as possible to ensure we are back on track to offer the highest quality of service. Even airport taxis need to be upgraded as some of them are deplorable.

Malaysia Airlines, which has returned to profitability, plays an important role in promoting the country as well as expand ing its services to major European cities as the current network lacks direct connectivity.

This will ensure we are able to tap into the lucrative tourist dollar from Europe, especially during the summer.

From hoteliers to grab drivers, tourism certainly has an impact on the economy and listed companies that are dependent on the tourist dollar.

This includes the aviation industry, our listed retail-based real estate investment trusts, companies in the food and beverage industry, leisure activities, theme-park resort operators, hospitals promoting medical tourism, ground transport providers, tourist guides and people who are directly or indirectly involved in tourism-related activities.

While tourism may only contribute just over 5% to the nation’s GDP this year, the total tourism satellite account of more than RM251.5bil based on the last published data for 2022 accounts for 14% of the nation’s GDP.

Tourism activities are significant to the nation’s economy and all efforts must be made to grow the industry.

Pankaj C. Kumar is a long-time investment analyst. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.