JOHOR BARU: There is a need to provide more allocation and support to the tourism sector in order to boost the number of visitors in the years to come, say industry players here.
Johor Tourist Guides Association chairman Jimmy Leong said the RM350mil allocated for the sector under Budget 2024 is insufficient to promote the country for the Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign.
“Honestly, RM350mil is just too little to market the country, especially since there is a high cost involved in the use of both digital and physical platforms for marketing.
“We need to take into consideration the cost of using digital platforms to market the country and the need to attend international tourism fairs to promote Malaysia.
“The amount allocated is insufficient for such a large sector and may put us a step or two behind in boosting the number of tourist arrivals,” he said.
He added that the tourism sector has contributed significantly to the creation of jobs in the country as well as revenue.
“It can be demoralising for state tourism entities, as they may feel that the Federal Government is not serious in their efforts to promote the sector.
“I hope the Federal Government will re-evaluate the matter and provide a more reasonable allocation for the industry,” he said.
On the Johor Budget 2024, Leong hopes the state government will look into improving basic facilities such as toilets and roads.
Malaysian Association of Hotels Johor chapter chairman Ivan Teo said the move to increase the sales and service tax (SST) from 6% to 8%, coupled with the restructuring of subsidies such as petrol subsidies, may affect domestic tourism.
“However, since Johor’s main target visitors are from Singapore, our tourism industry as a whole may not be affected that significantly, but we will still see a drop in terms of domestic visitors,” he said.
On the RM350mil allocation for the industry, Teo said the amount is not important, but what matters is how it is used.
“Since the allocation is rather small, it is important that all industry players work together to help boost the government’s efforts to promote the sector,” he said.
On the Johor budget, Teo hopes the state government could provide grants for local hotels wanting to refurbish their buildings.
“There are many hotels that were affected during the Covid-19 pandemic and are now in need of being upgraded or refurbished,” he said.
“If the state government could provide such grants, it would be of great help to hotels here and could also indirectly boost tourism in Johor.”
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