TOURISM Malaysia has just released the latest figures for tourist arrivals to Malaysia.
For the first nine months of 2021, only 73,309 foreign tourists visited our country – a massive drop of 98.3% compared to 4,299,419 over the same period in 2020.
This was because a large number of international tourists were able to travel more freely in the first quarter of 2020, with 2,164,459 foreign tourists visiting Malaysia in January, a figure similar to the average monthly arrivals of 2,175,085 in 2019.
A fairer comparison for 2020 and 2021 would be between the second and third quarters of each year.
From April to September 2020, Malaysia received 65,964 foreign tourists.
However, the number dropped to 48,053 in the corresponding period of last year.
If this pattern was repeated in the last quarter, then the total number of foreign tourists for 2021 would have fallen to around 100,000, which is lower than my earlier prediction.
I predicted, on Apr 19, 2021 that Malaysia will see just over 132,000 foreign tourists in 2021.
Also, the number of excursionists dropped by 88.3%, from 1,733,101 in the first nine months of 2020 to 202,732 in 2021.
Foreign excursionists are visitors that did not stay overnight in Malaysia and are of little interest to accommodation providers.
Sadly, there are few signs to show that 2022 will be much better, even though both 2020 and 2021 were total washouts, not just for international travel and global tourism but also for the economy of countries around the world and have caused untold miseries to people everywhere.
Perhaps the only way for local tourism industry players to survive, particularly those in the travel trade and hotel sectors, is to relook at the domestic market.
This time, it must go beyond the superficial and reach a deep understanding of domestic tourism that results in strategic changes.
But without a paradigm shift or thinking outside the box, they would not be able to innovate or create new demands and would just continue to offer more of the same.
For tour operators, their products are largely tour packages for free independent travellers (FITs) to natural sites.
However, the number of FITs buying tour packages are few and would not be enough to sustain 4,621 travel and tour operators currently listed under Tour Operating Business and Travel Agency Business on the website of the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry.
There will be no change if they continue with the same narratives among themselves or by justifying past decisions that have led to where they are now.
Instead of waiting and doing nothing, it would be better to go down fighting by experimenting with totally new packages.
Industry players thinking alone or working in silos are likely to be short of ideas.
But if they are placed together in a lab for brainstorming and assigned to work on projects they never thought viable, their synergies might result in a breakthrough, making the impossible possible. – Jan 18, 2022
YS Chan is Asean Tourism Master Trainer for travel agencies, master trainer for Travel & Tours Enhancement Course and Mesra Malaysia. He is also a tourism and transport industry consultant and writer.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
