Written by : Andrew Samuel
IN 2010, Malaysia received 24.58 million foreign tourists and our country was ranked ninth in the list of 10 most visited countries by the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
But over the next nine years, annual arrivals to Malaysia averaged only 25.9 million per year.
While foreign tourist arrivals to Malaysia have plateaued, other countries raced ahead.
In 2019, China had 145 million foreign tourists, Thailand got 39.8 million, while Japan welcomed 32.2 million, which was 23.4% higher than the 26.1 million that visited Malaysia the same year.
On the surface, we performed well within Asean where Malaysia was second only to Thailand. Our northern neighbour received only 52% more foreign tourists than us but earned a massive US$60.5 billion (RM256.6 billion) in inbound tourism receipts, which was more than three times our US$19.8 billion.
Another yardstick and different year could also be used for comparison. In 2018, we received 39.6% more foreign tourists than our southern neighbour. That year, the number that came to Malaysia was 25,832,354 while only 18,506,619 went to Singapore.
But if figures for Singaporean and Malaysian tourists were excluded, the numbers would be reduced to 15,216,368 for Malaysia and 17,252,627 for Singapore.
If other Asean tourists were not counted in both countries, the numbers would drop further to 7,717,908 for Malaysia and 11,985,897 for Singapore.
The main reason why 7,498,460 tourists from other Asean countries visited Malaysia compared to 5,266,730 to Singapore was because of land border crossings from Thailand and Brunei.
For example, Brunei contributed 1,382,011 visitors to Malaysia but only 74,960 for Singapore.
In 2018, both Malaysia and Singapore received about the same number of Indonesian, Cambodian and Laotian tourists. But the total number of Vietnamese, Filipino and Myanmar tourists to Singapore was 1,515,338, much higher than 810,153 to Malaysia.
It should be noted that foreign tourist arrivals are based on nationality and not from the originating country.
A planeload of passengers from Changi Airport is not limited to Singaporeans. Usually, there are leisure and business travellers, including expatriates, from many countries on board.
Excursionists who do not stay overnight are not counted as tourists.
In 2019, there were 8,944,841 foreign excursionists to Malaysia on top of the 26,100,784 foreign tourists.
Combined, there were a total of 35,045,625 foreign visitors to Malaysia in 2019.
However, even with a far greater variety of tourism products plus lower cost of goods and services, including much cheaper hotel rooms, we have fewer tourists than Singapore from three Asean countries and the rest of the world.
But did we bother to rectify what went wrong?
While other countries such as Thailand and Japan had their doors opened wide to welcome foreigners, our gates remained half shut by imposing visa requirements on citizens from China and India, whose population have easy access to Malaysia via medium-haul flights.
Although e-Visa was introduced for tourists from China in 2016 and later for Indian nationals, it was besieged by problems as the scheme was skewed to benefit those processing visas but caused unnecessary inconvenience and expenses for applicants, including travel agents.
As a result, we did not tap the full potential of tourists from China and India. While 3.1 million tourists from China visited Malaysia in 2019, 11 million went to Thailand. In the same year, 155 million outbound tourists from China travelled all over the world and spent US$255b globally.
Contrary to popular belief, tourists from neighbouring Singapore and Brunei were the second and third biggest spenders per diem in Malaysia, while China tourists were regarded as the world’s biggest spenders in recent years until the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020.
Malaysia My Second Home programme
More important than head count is tourism expenditure, which could be increased by getting visitors to stay longer.
In Malaysia, the longest-staying guests are participants in the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, which allows foreigners to live in Malaysia for 10 years on a multiple-entry social visit pass which is renewable.
From 2002 to 2019, participants from China accounted for 32.8% or 15,883 out of the total 48,471 who have spent over RM43 billion in Malaysia. Others in the top 10 are those from Japan, Bangladesh, South Korea, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Iran and India.
But the programme was halted from September 2018 because of a dispute between the tourism, arts and culture ministry (Motac) and the home ministry over the issue of whether the administration of MM2H should remain with Motac, which took over the programme in 2006 as part of its overall tourism promotion efforts.
Sadly, from July 6 last year, the MM2H programme was transferred back to what many have perceived to be the tourist-unfriendly immigration department, amid talk that 90% of applications for the programme had been rejected.
Recently, home ministry secretary-general Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz announced that the MM2H programme would be reactivated beginning October with improvements to policies and application conditions to balance the security and economic aspects.
However, licensed agents of MM2H have criticised the drastic changes, which were meant as a strategy to assist in the implementation of the national recovery plan (NRP) to regenerate the country’s economy but are likely to fall flat.
Like tourism, Malaysia needs to compete with other countries offering programmes similar to MM2H.
A door half shut would deter many suitable candidates from applying and many of those already here are preparing to pack their bags upon expiry of their social visit pass.
But unlike normal tourists with suitcases and shopping bags, many MM2H participants would have to sell off their residential properties and cars they have purchased to live comfortably here. This is also a loss of income for their network of regular sales and service providers.
While 42.3% of domestic visitors cited visiting relatives and friends as the main purpose for their travel, it was 25.5% for foreign tourists.
In 2019, we had 26.1 million foreign tourist arrivals and those who came here to visit friends and relatives numbered 6,655,500.
If our policies remain unfriendly towards foreign tourists or participants in MM2H, promotional efforts by Motac will be in vain and the money spent will go down the drain.
But success is within easy reach if only the powers that be are just as warm and friendly as ordinary Malaysians.
