MALAYSIA needs hard selling promotions to attract tourists as the country recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Malaysian Tourism Council said.

The council said its main concern was that the country was still recovering from the pandemic and industry players needed a lot of funds to promote tourism. 

This, the council said, was because there were so many tourist attractions in the country to promote.

Malaysian Tourism Council president Uzaidi Udanis said promoting their products – tourist spots – will cost money. 

“Our concern is all about promoting tourism. We cannot solely depend on whatever allocation given by the government to carry out promotions.

“The issue is the US dollar has shot up tremendously against the ringgit. So, the cost of advertising overseas with the allocated budget has become higher.”

Yesterday, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz announced that RM200 million has been allocated to encourage, promote and do marketing to strengthen the recovery of the tourism sector.  

“This is in line with the government’s target to receive more than 15 million foreign tourists, with an income value of RM47.6 billion next year,” he said when tabling the Supply Bill 2023 at the Dewan Rakyat.  

He said they will also focus on high-value tourists in niche market segments like ecotourism, golf and scuba sports, and international conventions.

“A total of RM90 million has been allocated, in the form of matching grants, for programmes such as the Galakan Melancong Malaysia (Gamelan) which involves promotional campaigns and marketing the industry.”

Uzaidi said that while the RM90 million under Gamelan was feasible, it was going to cost more to advertise overseas. 

“If we want to advertise and buy media slots overseas it is going to cost more and then the funds we have get smaller. This money has to be spent prudently.”

He said that Malaysia was not only competing with neighbouring countries such as Thailand, but also with Japan, when their borders open.

“We need to come up with new strategies. We cannot simply depend on billboards overseas. We need to do a lot of targeted marketing.”

“The grants are a good move by the government. But, we need more hard-selling promotions.”

“We need to go overseas to attract our counterparts (tourism operators) to promote Malaysia and this will require money.”

“We need to spend more on advertising and marketing.”

Uzaidi said that they have been given allocations for this year but it was not enough. 

“The minister also said that they want high value tourists and more ecotourism. 

“We need to upgrade the facilities first for tourist arrivals and look into waste management.”

“Even though ecotourism is important, we have to take care of our attractions well.”

Boosting domestic travel

Malaysia Association Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) president Tan Kok Liang said that despite the allocation presented, the budget was insufficient. 

He said that while waiting for international arrivals to come in, there is a need to boost the domestic market to sustain businesses. 

Tan said the government should give tax incentives to boost domestic travel.

“The RM25 million allocation for travel vouchers to boost local tourism is good but if it is divided, it is only RM100 per family and it will deplete quickly.

“The government can start by giving RM5,000 tax incentives for families who travel locally.”

“This can also be done for corporations. Instead of having their programmes overseas they can do it domestically.”

Tan said as people travel to the United Kingdom or Europe and because of the weaker ringgit, perhaps larger subsidies can be given for travellers, and a smaller subsidy for the Asean market.

“This will balance out the limited resources that we have. In the last two years because of the pandemic they have incurred a lot of taxable losses.”

He also said that it was crucial for the government to spend money to upgrade tourism infrastructure, especially in public areas. 

“Also some allocation can be given to tourism players to upgrade their facilities.” 

Tan added that the funding for tourism financing needs to be more flexible. 

He said that the take up rate for the Penjana tourism financing was very poor as it was only 10%. 

“Despite an allocation of RM600 million, only RM67.5 million was approved as of October last year.” – October 9, 2022.