Tourism Malaysia has released the figures for foreign visitor arrivals for the first half of 2022. The total number of foreigners that entered our country from January to June was 3,016,113, comprising 2,132,160 tourists and 883,953 excursionists.
During the same period last year, the total number of foreign visitors was 188,922, consisting of just 50,613 tourists and 138,309 excursionists. In contrast, there were 5,965,137 foreign visitors to Malaysia in the first half of 2020, with 4,252,997 being tourists and 1,712,140 excursionists.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org
It would take several years for foreign visitor arrivals to return to 2019 levels. As many as 18,137,162 entered Malaysia in the first half of that year, with 13,354,575 tourists spending an average of 7.4 nights and 4,782,587 excursionists departing on the same day of arrival.
For the first half of this year, 60% of all foreign tourists and 75% of all excursionists were Singaporeans. In the four years from 2012 to 2015, more than half of all foreign tourists to Malaysia were Singaporeans, averaging 12.9 million per year. But after that, the percentage dropped to 49.6% in 2016, 47.9% in 2017, 41.1% in 2018 and 38.9% in 2019, averaging 11.6 million per year.
One of the main reasons was congestion at entry points by road that affected not only excursionists but also tourists. Bear in mind that expenditures by Singaporean tourists travelling all over peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak were among the top three on per diem basis, just below nationalities from Saudi Arabia and Brunei, and above those from Australia and China. Together, the 5,381,566 Singaporean tourists contributed RM11.56 billion to our economy in the first half of 2019.
Shouldn’t we make Singaporean tourists feel more welcome? This is especially true for our immigration officers, as they exert a huge impact on the first impression of our country. There are immigration officers on duty who habitually make sarcastic remarks on frequent entry by Singaporeans into Malaysia. Instead of welcoming them, they are bothered by foreigners entering Malaysia.
Over 25% of foreign tourists cited visiting friends and relatives as the main purpose for visiting Malaysia in the first half of 2019. But unlike 71% of domestic tourists that stayed at free accommodation provided by friends and relatives, foreign tourists prefer to stay in licensed hotels or private residences booked online.
To surpass the target of 10 million foreign tourists by the end of this year would require an average of 1.33 million arrivals per month or eight million over six months, as 2,132,160 tourists came in the first half of this year.
Under the National Tourism Policy 2020-2030, there are 22 strategic action plans in place with four on governance capacity. They are for strengthening high-level coordination to monitor the implementation of the policy; enhancing tourism core skills of related government agencies; increasing the capacity and tourism knowhow of local authorities; and embracing innovative governance models to facilitate participatory processes and public-private sector partnerships.
To be more competitive, the Tourism Ministry should reinvigorate the Mesra Malaysia programme. It is the most effective training for public and private sector front liners to become warm and friendly hosts. We have a serious deficiency in manners especially to our neighbours. Next, we could improve entry point experience with reduced waiting times, especially amplified in a holiday season. That may require some initiative and a few ringgits to increase spending (in Malaysia). Why can’t we do that?
Reference:
Make Singaporean Tourists feel more welcome, YS Chan, Letter to the Editor, FMT, 14 September 2022
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