MALAYSIA has seen its tourist numbers swell over the past 12 years from just 5.5 million visitors in 1998 to 23.6 million last year bringing in MYR53.4 billion ($16.84 billion) thanks to rigorous promotional campaigns by Tourism Malaysia across the globe.
Tourism is currently Malaysia’s second largest foreign exchange earner after manufacturing and the country is becoming a destination of choice for visitors from the Middle East, who are turning more to the East than traditional Western holiday spots. In 2009, more than 77,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia, 22,000 from the UAE and 100,000-plus from Iran travelled to the country from this region.
The reason, according to a Tourism Malaysia official, could be that people from the Arab world and Iran see Malaysia as a moderate Muslim nation, which has Islam as its official religion with constitutional provision for freely practicing other religions. Other factors could be the currency strength and the availability of Halal food throughout Malaysia.
Overall, however, Singapore topped the inbound tourist figures, with just under 13 million visiting in 2009, followed by 2.4 million Indonesians and 1.5 million Thais. Brunei Darussalam and China each contributed a million and India more than 500,000.
STA Travel UK, a global travel specialist, this year confirmed the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur (KL) , as top of the list for cheapest destinations. Based on totalling the price for a beverage, a meal in a local restaurant, a night in a hostel, a bus ride and a sight-seeing tour, KL just cost £13.09 ($20). This was followed by Hanoi, Vietnam, in second place with Cape Town, South Africa, in eighth place.
Malaysia has stepped up promotional shows to woo visitors from neighbouring countries and its tourism ministry is determined to take cruise tourism to new heights by becoming the ‘playground of the East’, now that China is showing keen interest in the sector.
Tourism Malaysia plans to increase promotional activities in China whose nationals view the country as a top tourist destination. Last year 1.019 million Chinese visited Malaysia, representing a 7.4 per cent increase from 2008. This year’s target is 1.2 million.
Two of Malaysia’s leading resorts have been voted into the top 10 family resorts in Asia by Australian travellers in a recent survey. More than 40,000 Australians ranked the Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort in Kota Kinabalu and Golden Sand Resort in Penang as Asia’s fifth and ninth best family resorts.
Malaysia is also seeing growing popularity as an international meetings destination, a recognition of its unique selling points by associations and meeting planners globally. In the latest International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) city rankings, Kuala Lumpur leaped five spots to the 22nd position, placing it among the five leading meetings destinations in Asia Pacific alongside Singapore, Beijing, Seoul and Bangkok respectively.
In 2009, Malaysia welcomed more than 1.18 million overseas business event visitors, contributing an estimated MYR10 billion ($3.1 billion) to the local economy.
Another aspect of Malaysia that is on the rise is medical tourism and the country is currently holding its biggest ever sale carnival, a shopping festival which runs until September 16.