I REFER to the report “Jan-Feb tourist arrivals to M’sia surge to 6.7mln” (Bernama, Apr 13). Over the years, I have repeatedly pointed out the difference between tourists and excursionists, but some tourism officials and the media have yet to get it.
The difference can be as much as between a yard and a metre, or a kilometre and a mile. Therefore, figures for tourist arrivals and visitor arrivals are different yardsticks and they cannot be interchanged freely.
Whether the latest arrival figures were wrongly stated or reported, it can be accepted as a genuine mistake if those involved make the effort to ensure it is not repeated. Otherwise, the reported arrival figures could be picked up and circulated among Asean countries.
It would not take long for a foreign journalist to misconstrue the erroneous description and regard the latest report as an attempt by Malaysia to inflate tourist arrival figures by including excursionist arrivals, which would add up to visitor arrivals.
The 6.7 million figure is correct for visitor arrivals to Malaysia in the first two months of this year, but it would be incorrect to state that it was for tourist arrivals. For example, in 2019 we had 35 million visitor arrivals, comprising 26 million tourists and nine million excursionists.
In early last year, I wrote “Malaysia recorded 29 million visitor arrivals in 2023”, with the first paragraph stating that almost 29 million visitor arrivals comprised of 20,141,846 foreign tourists and 8,822,462 foreign excursionists, or a total of 28,964,308 foreign visitors.
Three days later, a Vietnamese newspaper published “Malaysia beats Thailand to become most visited in Southeast Asia” based on the heading of my article. However, Thailand recorded 28.15 million tourist arrivals in 2023, much more than 20.14 million to Malaysia.
Early this year, there was a local newspaper report with the heading “Malaysia is the most-visited Asean nation in 2024 with 38 million foreign arrivals”. But tourist arrivals to Malaysia last year were 25,016,968 while Thailand received 10 million more at 35.54 million.
We will certainly lose our credibility if our tourism officials or local media continue to announce or publish misleading information on tourist arrivals. This will happen as long as they cannot differentiate between tourists, excursionists and visitors.
Normally, these three words can be used generally but when applied to arrival figures, they are specific tourism terms that cannot be interchanged. This fundamental importance must be understood and grasped by tourism officials and the reporting media.
Otherwise, these people do not really know what they are talking or writing about and may eventually cause embarrassment to Malaysians when asked in a gathering of Asean nations or businesses why we repeatedly claim to have more tourist arrivals than Thailand.
Indeed, Malaysia was ahead until 2014 but Thailand overtook us in tourist arrivals from 2015 and has never looked back. However, we should be more concerned in achieving tourist arrival targets of 27.4 million in 2024, 31.4 million in 2025, and 35.6 million in 2026.
Sadly, Malaysia has consistently missed all its tourist arrival targets since the last Visit Malaysia Year in 2014, not counting the years affected by the pandemic between 2020 and 2023. It was below target in 2024 and the trend is likely to continue in 2025 and 2026.
Hence, the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry has switched to highlighting total visitor arrivals instead of tourist arrivals, which is the yardstick used internationally. Last year, Malaysia received a record 38 million foreign visitors, higher than the 35 million in 2019.
If the 6.7 million visitor arrivals for the first two months are repeated for the rest of this year, then we will have a total of 40.2 million in 2025.
If targets for tourist arrivals are no longer used for comparison, then it is all hunky-dory for Malaysia’s tourism, especially inbound. – April 15, 2025
YS Chan is master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and Travel and Tours Enhancement Course and an Asean Tourism Master Trainer. He is also a tourism and transport business consultant.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: Reuters
