Will A Million International Tourists Visit Kelantan This Year

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A BERNAMA report recently stated that Kelantan is targeting the arrival of one million international tourists this year, compared with only 595,000 in 2024, with a special focus on the Chinese and Japanese markets.
State Tourism, Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee chairman Datuk Kamaruddin Md Nor said: “If last year we managed to attract over 595,000 foreign tourists, bringing the overall total to 11.1 million, this time we want to draw even more international visitors to Kelantan.”
He was speaking at the ‘Mmukat’ Beach Festival in Pantai Impian Kemasin, which is an initiative to promote Bachok as a tourism town by turning traditional fishermens’ activities into experiential tourism products.
He said that while the state may not be rich in natural resources, it has natural beauty, beaches, and culture that offer a unique attraction, adding that the state’s strong performance last year, exceeding its 10-million tourist target with 10.5 million arrivals.
I have been to Kelantan only once, and that was 46 years ago. When I learned that my colleague will be driving a foreign outbound tour operator (commonly referred to as a travel agent) from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu, I decided to accompany them.
I remember the operator (who plan and organise outbound tours from his country) was not impressed with Kelantan, and least of all the hyped-up Beach of Passionate Love (Pantai Cinta Berahi), which was later renamed Pantai Cahaya Bulan (Moonlight Beach) in 1990.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”. He meant to aim high, and even if you fall short, will still result in a significant outcome.  It was inspiring when I first read it more than half a century ago, but no longer.
Instead, we ought to be more pragmatic. If targets and challenges are unclear, they will be missed by more than a mile, and exposed when communicating to various stakeholders and the public. For example, there was no distinction made between tourists and visitors.
Visitors that stay overnight are tourists, whereas all visitors include both tourists and excursionists who are day-trippers that do not stay overnight at destinations they visit. If there were almost 600,000 tourists to Kelantan last year, where did they stay?
If the majority was from South Thailand, many could have stayed with relatives and friends or in private residences booked online. But the majority would have stayed at budget or tourist-class hotels. If so, hoteliers in Kelantan must have been grinning from ear to ear last year.
If a million were to arrive this year, the limited number of hotels in Kelantan would be unable to cope with the huge influx of tourists to the state.
If so, there would have been a mad rush to build new accommodation or convert existing buildings into hotels or residences for tourists.
But the reality on the ground is quite different. In any case, the most accurate indicator is using average hotel occupancy rate multiplied by number of rooms available to derive total number of occupied room nights. Without such data, figures on tourist numbers are plucked from the sky.
The number of domestic visitors also needs scrutiny. Visitors to the state can be intrastate or interstate.
The former are those who travel from one district to another within the same state, and the latter from other states, but mostly across the border from Terengganu, Pahang and Perak.
In any case, it is impossible to identify and count the total number of domestic visitors. Sample surveys produce estimates that will vary greatly according to agenda.
Again, the best indicator would be hotel rooms occupied by domestic tourists, regardless of which state they come from.
Touting impressive arrival figures is nothing more than a syiok sendiri exercise. The most effective way to develop tourism in any town, city or state is to approach visitors and record their feedback, with the aim of offering them more of the positive and cutting down on the negative. 
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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