MALAYSIA’S tourism industry looks ahead to a more promising 2022 with the reopening of Malaysia’s international border.
Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) through its Tourism Productivity Nexus (TPN) initiative is confident that the industry will rebound to its positive productivity growth this year after registering another negative growth -29.7% in 2021 – the lowest among the subsectors in the services industry.
The industry’s productivity level decreased from RM37,258 per employee in 2020 to RM26,179 per employee in 2021, signalling the need for a robust comeback.
MPC director general Datuk Abdul Latif bin Haji Abu Seman emphasised that the industry’s productivity rebound necessitates a solid multi-party collaboration.
“MPC and TPN are committed to working together with the main stakeholders from the Government, industry associations, academia, and experts in bringing the industry’s productivity to its positive growth,” he remarked.
“We are confident that Malaysia’s tourism industry will return to its vibrancy, and we believe this can be achieved through innovative collaboration among all relevant parties.”
The strong representations from various parties in the TPN Working Groups aims to implement productivity initiatives in destination management and marketing, promotion, sustainable tourism, accommodation, business events, touristic attractions, workforce, and digitalisation.
Meanwhile, TPN’s Rohizam Md Yusoff believed that this collaborative platform would significantly contribute to the industry’s productivity growth at the enterprise, sectoral and eventually national level.
He explained that the industry is focusing on digitalising and modernising the industry towards niche and high-yield market segments.
“Tourism in the new era is built on Industry 4.0, digitalisation, and smart tourism. Among the immediate actions is the development of a digital roadmap and digitalisation index for the industry and launching an all-encompassing tourism campaign focusing on Malaysian identity to boost inbound travels.
“The industry will drive these initiatives, and we need the Government’s strong support.”
According to Rohizam, TPN strategically aligns its action plans to the Malaysia Productivity Blueprint (MPB), National Tourism Policy (NTP), and the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (12MP).
“We pledge to bring Malaysia’s tourism industry to its deserved glory,” he added. – March 18, 2022
