Datuk Musa HJ. Yusof, director general, Tourism Malaysia (second from left) speaking at the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2019 in Halong, Vietnam.
Malaysia expects to make a comeback in tourism this year with new initiatives to attract more airlines to fly to the country.
Speaking at ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2019 in Vietnam, Tourism Malaysia’s director general Datuk Musa HJ. Yusof said Malaysia will be “making more noise” in the marketplace after its relative reserve over the past four years.
Efforts will go into areas such as partnerships with airlines, including a matching grant scheme for new airlines flying to Malaysia that will split costs 50-50. New carriers who have started to fly to Malaysia include India's largest low cost carrier IndiGo.
As of last November, there are currently 67 airlines flying to Malaysia with a carrying capacity of 668,423 seats each week, according to Malaysia Airports Holding Holdings Berhad. The operator aims to attract 10 new airlines both premium and low-cost carriers (LCCs) to Malaysia, especially to its five main airports in 2019, according to Malaysian media reports.
Visitor arrivals, however, have weathered a slight dip. For the first nine months of 2018, the country drew 19.39 million visitors, a contraction of 0.3%.
Huge decreases in arrivals from main source markets Singapore (-15.6% to 7.83 million) and Brunei (-18.6% to 1.06 million) have weighed heavily, but were marginally offset by expanding markets Indonesia (+17.6% to 2.44 million) and China (+34.2% to 2.23 million).
When asked why Malaysia has seen such as drastic decrease in visitors from Singapore, Musa cited the successive delays along the border checkpoints as a significant reason for the decrease.
But an encouraging sign is that visitors on average are spending slightly more and staying longer. Tourism receipts saw a 0.2% increase to RM 61.9 million (US$15.1 million), with average expenditure rising by 0.8% to RM 3,190.5. Visitor nights have also increased to 7.3 nights by 0.2 nights.
Malaysia is also looking to strengthen tourism through multi-destination itineraries in the ASEAN region. A guide consisting of 69 multi-country travel packages from 36 travel operators has been launched and endorsed during ATF.
The country is also gearing up for the international stage as an official partner country for ITB Berlin, held from March 6-10.