KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is expected to register higher tourist arrivals next year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, driven by projected recovery for the local tourism industry and weak ringgit.
“For the first half of 2023, in comparison to our competitors in the Southeast Asia region, Malaysia welcomed 9.16 million international tourist arrivals, placing us second after our neighbour Thailand.
“More recently, the statistics for the third quarter (Q3) of the year recorded a total of 14 million international tourists to Malaysia between January to September 2023,” said Tourism Malaysia (promotion) deputy director-general Datuk Musa Yusof during the 16th Bursa-Hong Leong Investment Bank Stratum Focus Series, “Tourism: Welcoming A New Dawn” today.
Citing the World Tourism Organisation, he noted that the Asia and the Pacific region reached 61% of the pre-pandemic level for international tourist arrivals between January and July of this year, which is relatively low compared to the rest of the region due to slower reopening of international borders for several countries.
“It is expected that our region will reach recovery to pre-pandemic levels in 2024 onwards,” he said.
He shared that aviation players have also reached out to them and are positive that the local tourism industry will recover from 2024 onwards.
Musa added that details on the tourism target for 2024 is expected to be announced by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.
On weak ringgit, Musa opined that it will not only attract tourists to visit Malaysia but also boost domestic spending as it would entice tourists to spend more.
“Its not to say that Malaysia is cheap but it is value for money (for tourists). People coming in, they can (contribute to domestic spending and the economy),” he added.
Touching on Bruneian tourists, he pointed out that despite only having a population of about 400,000, they have made around 1.7 million trips to Malaysia in 2019.
He added that border tourism will trend upwards driven by better infrastructure, namely the Pan Borneo Highway in Sarawak that is expected to open by year-end.
In terms of the strategy for next year, he said that it will aim to attract Indonesian and Vietnamese tourists.
“We have a focused targeted market. We are looking at certain countries in Asean, for example Indonesia and Vietnam markets. We are still looking at (other Asean) markets as well but there are some markets that we hope to trigger (in order to entice the tourists) to come in,” he said.
“The first (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) MICE group which entered into Malaysia when we first opened up our borders came from Vietnam. There’s a lot of multinational companies in Vietnam, so we need to tap on these companies that are coming into Malaysia. That’s why we have an office in Vietnam, we are talking to them”.
He added that they are also looking into promoting Malaysia to tourists from the Middle East due to their high spending capabilities.
“The top five per capita income that are spending a lot in Malaysia are from the Middle Eastern market, from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, UAE and so on,” he said.
