Gearing up for more tourists

THE allocation of RM250mil from Budget 2023 to promote the tourism sector can be considered as too low, especially when 2025 has been declared Visit Malaysia Year.

Lest we forget, tourism requires minimal investment but provides the highest returns within the shortest time.

In 2019, we earned RM89.4bil from 26.1 million inbound tourists, and another RM92.6bil from 84.7 million domestic tourism.

For VMY 2025, we ought to be targeting 29.1 million foreign tourists and RM100bil in inbound tourism expenditure. In comparison, Thailand received 40 million foreign tourists in 2019 and is planning to attract 80 million in 2027, earning five trillion baht (about RM650bil).

In 2009, Malaysia entered the top 10 list of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in terms of tourist arrivals for the year. It was at ninth place. But we began to slide downhill and by 2017, we had dropped to 25th out of 141 countries overall.

In 2014, we received 27.4 million foreign tourists and Thailand only 24.7 million. In 2019, 26.1 million foreign tourists visited Malaysia, but 40 million went to Thailand. Was it because tourists were more welcomed in Thailand while we have been flashing signs of anti-tourism?

We also lose out whenever tourism is given a back seat, as happened in many annual budgets.

An exception was Budget 2020 when RM1.1bil was allocated to the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) to promote VMY 2020, which was unfortunately cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nevertheless, designating 2025 as our next VMY is a good move, as all those held in the past have energised our people and spurred the economy. But there is much work to be done in all areas, as the success of VMY 2025 is beyond just branding and sloganeering.

Apart from having the physical infrastructure, including facilities, amenities and systems, in place, tourism personnel at all levels must also be well versed and trained as great hosts to deliver the best experience possible to tourists.

Facilities at airports, including immigration counters and baggage collection points, must be prepared to handle large crowds and long queues especially when several flights arrive in quick succession.

When it comes to tourism frontliners in hotels, restaurants, shops, attractions and other service providers, some are well trained, but there are many who are lacking in courtesy because of poor interpersonal communication skills.

This shortcoming can be addressed by training them under Mesra Malaysia, a programme rolled out in 2019 by Motac in conjunction with VMY 2020.

Alarmingly, there is great disparity in training for tourism industry personnel. While in-house training programmes are regularly conducted for staff in bigger hotels, especially those managed by reputable chains, it is largely non-existent in the travel trade.

Most of the 4,366 travel and tour companies currently registered with Motac are small enterprises employing only a handful of staff.

Company bosses could conduct training well if they are knowledgeable about the industry and business, but many are not.

Instead of engaging experts to train just a few staff, it would be better to send them for short training courses open to the public.

Unfortunately, there are hardly any besides Mesra Malaysia and the Travel and Tours Enhancement Course, which is also conducted by Motac.

To equip all tourism personnel with industry-relevant knowledge and skills, more half-day or full-day training courses must be introduced. These courses should incorporate the art and science of customer service, tour operating business and tour vehicle operations, including car rental service.

YS CHAN

Kuala Lumpur

(The writer is master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and a tourism and transport consultant.)