Understand Facts And Figures To Boost Malaysia S Inbound Tourism

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TOURISM is a word that can be vague when used in a general sense, or wrongly if applied to recreational activities that generate no income, such as visiting natural sites like beaches and jungles, or manmade areas where the public have free access such as city streets and parks.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation defines tourism as a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes.
The above definition is suitable for academics and tourism students, but to the vast majority in the tourism sector, it sounded more like mumbo jumbo and serves little purpose in the industry.
It is more meaningful to describe tourism as a gargantuan business and the main expenditures are shopping, accommodation, food and beverage, transport, entertainment and attractions.
Taking travel into account, the tourism business can be divided into outbound tours for travelling overseas, inbound tours for incoming tourists, and domestic tours for travelling within the country.
Whereas outbound tour fares are mainly spent overseas, fees collected for inbound and domestic tour services are retained in the country. Also, services for inbound and domestic are mostly the same, the difference being inbound passengers pre-book before entering Malaysia.
Many assume that domestic tour packages are limited to Malaysians but most are actually sold to foreigners already in the country.
They could be visiting tourists who prefer to buy sightseeing tours after their arrival, or foreigners living here including students, expats and family members.
Few Malaysians that travel within the country buy domestic tour packages, as most of them have their own vehicles or use public transport. They can also book their flights and accommodations directly without paying for services provided by travel agencies.
(Image: The Star)The success of a nation can also be determined by its inbound tourism, which not only brings in foreign exchange but also foreign investments.
There is a strong correlation between inbound tourism and foreign investments for a country, and also within its various regions or states.
Last year, Malaysia’s inbound tourism was more or less back to 2019 levels. The four years from 2020 to 2023 are not suitable for comparison as they were affected by COVID-19, but 2024 will be used as the new benchmark to compare performances from this year and beyond.
In 2024, we received 25,016,968 tourist arrivals, less than the 26,100,784 in 2019, However, the number of excursionist arrivals rocketed to 12,944,787 from 8,944,841 in 2019. Overall, we had 37,961,484 foreign visitors in 2024 compared to 35,045,625 in 2019.
Foreign tourists spent RM102.2 bil or an average of RM4,086.60 per person, whereas foreign excursionists spent only RM4.5 bil or an average of RM348 per person during their few hours in our country, including the large number of cruise ship passengers on shore excursions.
In terms of per capita expenditure, a foreign tourist is 11.7 times more valuable than a foreign excursionist. In other words, one million foreign tourists is equivalent to 11.7 million foreign excursionists. Tourism business is about numbers and receipts are more important than arrivals.
But the likelihood of their return for more visits are the same. Therefore, we must treat all visitors as well as we can, including those staying at hostels and budget hotels, as they could come back as successful executives or businessmen, along with many family members and friends in tow.
Last year, the top six nationalities that made up the most number of visitors to Malaysia were from Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Brunei and India, and they will remain so in the coming years. Combined, they totalled 32,092,389 or 84.5% of all foreign visitors.
It makes sense to focus on these six nationalities for those who wish to go big in Malaysia’s inbound tourism. But there is also room for players to concentrate on niche markets they specialise in. In any case, success depends on understanding and acting on facts and figures.
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  MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.

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