Thailand
Malaysia: Govt needs to tackle plateauing tourist arrivals
SINGAPORE: Tourist arrivals to Malaysia have been plateauing in the past few years and the government should take remedial measures to reverse this trend, according to Maybank Kim Eng’s regional head of institutional research Wong Chew Hann.
“We have actually seen the tourist arrival numbers flattening, in fact it was down 0.4% last year to 25.8 million people. Two things the government can do is on visas: such as implementing multiple entry visas for visitors from single entry visas presently,” Wong said in her presentation at Invest Asia 2019.
“There has also been a derail in the last 12 months or more to promote Malaysia as a tourism destination for the world. This is something that the government must step up with. These promotion activities have actually come off,” she added.
Although visitor arrivals to Malaysia eased over the past two years, tourism receipts continued to grow and last year, it hit RM84.1bil with a growth of 2%, which is a record high.
However, Wong noted that tourism receipts in terms of US dollar had peaked in 2014, with receipts in the US dollar in 2018 at 5% below the peak four years back.
She said the tourism industry’s importance to the Malaysian economy is growing and contributed to about 14.9% in 2017 from 10.4% in 2005.
“About one in every four people who are employed are actually directly or indirectly involved in the tourism industry. They could be in the retail or food and beverage industries,” she said.
She said tourist arrivals dropped in 2018 mainly because of lower arrivals from Singapore.
“We also have to note that these numbers do not capture day-trip visitors. Last year, tourist arrivals from Singapore were down 15% year-on-year. Out of 10 tourists that come to Malaysia, four are from Singapore. The reasons that might have caused this are the congestion on the causeway and the ringgit which has strengthened against the Singapore dollar,” Wong said.
“What we have observed over the last couple of years is that the ringgit plays a significant factor as well,” she added.
Wong said tourist arrivals from other countries excluding Singapore had, however, shown an increase.
“The big chunk of the growth was actually due to arrivals of tourists from China, which grew by 29% year-on-year. The mainland Chinese and Indonesians made up about 25% of our total tourists last year,” Wong said.
“Mainland Chinese visitors spend more than any other major visitors. Expect more mainland Chinese to visit after recent re-warming of bilateral ties. They have taken a liking to Sabah, a growing ecotourism destination.”
Wong noted that the resumption of East Cost Rail Link and the acceptance of Huawei may encourage more mainland Chinese to visit Malaysia.
Among the emerging trends is the continued growth and stature of the Malaysian medical tourism industry, which had seen medical tourists doubling to 1.2 million and receipts tripling to RM1.5bil from 2010 to 2018.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2019/05/13/govt-needs-to-tackle-plateauing-tourist-arrivals/#rdMBb2Xez0MlomiO.99