PETALING JAYA: More funds are needed for tourism promotion activities if Malaysia wants to remain competitive with its neighbouring countries, according to a tourism group.
Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (Mita) president Uzaidi Udanis said local tourism players must work together and push for more aggressive marketing strategies to attract more tourists.
“Thailand and Indonesia are doing very well in terms of promotional and marketing activities for their tourism industries.
"We understand that the government has higher priorities when it comes to budget allocations.
“Industry players must work together and chip in to promote Malaysia to the global market as the budget allocated was obviously not enough,” he said.
In tabling Budget 2023, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced a RM250mil allocation for the tourism sector.
This was a reduction from the previous year's RM1.6bil aimed at reviving the sector due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the Thai Cabinet approved a total of 3.9bil baht (RM500.5mil) for tourism promotional campaigns for the country this year.
In Indonesia, it was reported that its government will spend US$1.25bil (RM5.54bil) between 2020 and 2024 for infrastructure projects, promotional activities and personnel training in tourism-related areas.
Uzaidi said that to woo more tourists, the government should also introduce visa-on-arrivals (VOA) for some countries, suggesting that tourists from China, India and Russia be accorded this facility.
“While we have made progress since last year, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore have done a much better job. Thailand provides such facilities for Chinese tourists and even India. We need to emulate them,” he added.
According to Tourism Malaysia, a total of 10.07 million tourists arrived in the country last year.
The data, shared on the agency's website, showed an increase from April when Malaysia reopened its international borders.
Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) honorary treasurer Nigel Wong said on top of more investment in promotions, Malaysia needs to relax its visa entry requirements for key tourists.
While Malaysia is on par with Indonesia and Singapore in terms of tourist arrivals, he said the country is still behind Thailand.
“Sadly, we feel that the Budget 2023 allocation for tourism is extremely underwhelming.
“It’s not enough for any significant tourism infrastructure upgrades or development.
“The available funds should go towards promotions and, just as importantly, direct trade facilitation between Malaysian tourism stakeholders and those in other source markets,” he said.
Wong added that it is also important the marketing of Visit Malaysia Year 2025 should commence this year while more funds be made available for more aggressive promotions in 2024 and the following year.
“We need a purpose-driven supplementary budget that will enable local tourism stakeholders to acquire resources, upgrade service infrastructure and develop new products.
“More importantly, funding needs to be made available to inbound stakeholders to participate in various trade platforms and events - building strong relationships now will equate to better returns in the near future,” he added.
Melaka Tourism Association president Madelina Kuah agreed that Malaysia needed to be more proactive in terms of promoting tourism, adding that Thailand and Singapore have the edge in terms of marketing and promotional activities.
“The budget allocated for the tourism sector was mainly for infrastructure upgrading. We need marketing and promotions allocations, too, and better incentives to get tourism players to be involved in promoting our products,” she said.
For hotels, while the occupancy rate has been showing progress, the profits were hit as travellers preferred dealing with online travel agents (OTA).
The Malaysian Budget and Business Hotel Association (MyBHA) said that to date, almost 95% of travellers used OTA to book their rooms in the country and the agents deliberately dropped prices to attract customers.
“When they drop the prices, the hotel operators have to bear the cost. And on top of that operators need to pay commissions.
“We could opt out of using OTA, but that’s going to be very hard because travellers want more competitive prices,” said association president Dr Sri Ganesh Michiel.
He urged the government to regulate OTA to help operators, especially budget hotels, in the country.
He also called for a special committee to be established for the Visit Malaysia Year 2025 comprising tourism industry players.
