PETALING JAYA: From January to April 2023, Malaysia welcomed 92,182 tourists from Japan, marking a nearly 50% increase compared to the same period last year, according to the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing highlighted that while this surge is promising, the total number of Japanese tourists for the entire year of 2023 reached 229,892, which is still only 50% of pre-pandemic levels.
Japan remains one of Malaysia's top ten tourist markets. In 2019, the number of Japanese visitors stood at 424,694 annually.
To boost these numbers, Tiong and Tourism Malaysia conducted a working visit to Osaka and Tokyo from June 21 to 27, launching the 2024 Japan Tourism Marketing Mission. The delegation met with eight major local tourism companies to fortify Malaysia’s presence in the Japanese market.
During their meeting with Japan’s travel agency, HIS Group, Tiong offered 100 familiarisation tour packages for Japanese travel agencies to visit Malaysia, aiming to develop more comprehensive tour packages.
He also extended 80 site inspection packages, inviting Japanese agencies to organise group visits to explore routes in Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Perak, and Sarawak, with a special focus on personalised honeymoon travel packages.
HIS Group, which has 131 branches across Japan, already offers travel packages to destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kota Kinabalu, and Langkawi, and has recently introduced packages to Sabah and Sarawak.
Additionally, Tiong offered 20 familiarisation trip slots for travel agencies to visit Malaysia by August 2023. He expressed his hope that Nippon Travel Agency would develop more educational tourism packages, adding to its existing offerings in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Melaka, and Johor.
Tiong also said that 10 of the inspection spots will focus on exploring northern Peninsula Malaysia and the East Coast, with routes in Perak, Pahang, Redang Island, and Langkawi.
Furthermore, five spots are dedicated to Sabah and Sarawak, particularly to promote student exchange programmes, allowing students to experience Malaysia’s rich cultural heritage.
“Malaysia will provide many unique travel experiences and personalised services, including island hopping, off-road adventures, golf, and student exchange programmes,” Tiong emphasised.
In addition, he announced that All Nippon Airways will launch a new flight route from Tokyo Haneda Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport starting in September 2023.
This will complement the existing daily flight from Tokyo Narita Airport to Kuala Lumpur, effectively doubling the daily flights from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur and facilitating increased travel for Japanese tourists to Malaysia.
