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Transforming tourism industry in Malaysia
TOURISM will continue to be a critical economic sector for Malaysia, providing significant potential for growth and development.
In its long-term forecast, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) stated that international tourism will continue to grow in a sustained manner in the next two decades (2010 2030), with the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide increasing by an average of 3.3% a year.
At the projected pace of growth, tourist arrivals will pass the 1 billion mark by 2012, compared to 940 million in 2010. They are expected to reach 1.8 billion by 2030. This means, in two decades’ time, 5 million people will be crossing international borders for leisure, business or other purposes such as visiting friends and family every day.
These figures simply demonstrate the huge potential of the tourism sector to be expanded further in coming years. It also shows that competition is bound to be fierce as destinations must compete internationally to get a bigger share of the tourism dollar.
As such, the Malaysian Government introduced the Tourism Transformation Plan 2020 to bring its tourism industry to greater heights as the country heads towards the year 2020. The Plan aims to improve Malaysia's position to be within the top 10 in terms of global tourism receipts by 2015. Last year, the country was ranked 14 by UN WTO for two consecutive years. Malaysia was also placed ninth for three consecutive years since 2009 in UN WTO’s ranking of top 10 countries with the highest international tourist arrivals.
Moving towards 2020, Malaysia has set a target of 36 million tourist arrivals with a revenue of RM 168 (USD52.8) billion. Malaysia's tourism also aspires to contribute RM103.6 (USD32.6) billion in Gross National income (GNI) and create half a million new job opportunities.
Malaysia’s tourism performance
Malaysia is fortunate to have its fair share of the global tourism market. The country received 24.7 million tourists last year, which was a far cry from a little more than a decade ago, when it received only 7 million tourists in 1999.
It recorded a weekly tourism revenue of RM 1.12 billion (USD352.5 million), with tourist receipts reaching RM58.3 (USD18.3) billion, up 3.2 percent against the receipts in 2010.
With a contribution of RM37.4 (USD 11.8) billion to the GNI, the tourism industry currently stands as the seventh largest contributor after Oil, Gas and Energy, Wholesale and Retail, Palm Oil and Rubber, Financial Services, Agriculture and Electrical & Electronics sectors.
In fact, the main contribution of exports of services in 2011 is the result of income earned from travel by foreign tourists to Malaysia with a value of RM55.2 (USD17.4) billion or 51.7% of the total exports of services.
Indeed, the growth of the tourism sector has opened up new employment opportunities across diverse industries such as retail, food and beverage, accommodation, transport and handicrafts. A total of 56,000 jobs were created last year. For 2012, the Tourism Ministry targets to stretch it to 91,000.
Moving towards 2020
In these few years, the Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Malaysia have been rolling out various innovative and creative new events and activities to diversify the country's tourism offerings. They aim to sustain tourist's
interest, attract more tourists to the country, and most importantly, to make tourists stay longer and spend more.
Malaysia has been promoted as a top-of-mind destination for leisure and business offering diverse worldclass attractions and services.
In the coming years, the Tourism Ministry's Key Performance Indicators (KPI) also include boosting revenues through enhanced packaging and clustering of international sporting events such as the Fl Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix, Le Tour de Langkawi, C1MB Asia Pacific Classic Malaysia and Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
In addition, the Tourism Ministry is also revving up efforts to make Malaysia a prime choice for international world conferences as business tourism has become a dynamic developing sphere in the world today.
Malaysia's tourism industry will be filled with many exciting and creative tourism products and services as the country moves towards 2020. (Abridged)