LETTER | Yes, going by the lack of quantity and quality in fruitful engagement sessions between the public and private sectors, academia with industry, among NGOs, and within dozens of tourism associations.

Sharing of information is at best ad hoc and not on a regular basis. Hence, the majority of travel trade players are limited to their own perspectives and can be clueless about what is going on or developing in the regional tourism markets.

One example is international tourist arrivals, which is a good indicator of inbound tourism for any country. Recently, a market intelligence company based in Vietnam released the January-February 2023 updates for Southeast Asia.

In January, Thailand led the pack with 2,144,948 arrivals, followed by Singapore (931,650), Vietnam (871,162), Indonesia (735,947), Philippines (464,168), and Cambodia (402,943).

In February, figures from only three countries were available. They are Singapore (957,610), Vietnam (932,969), and Philippines (466,032).

The four countries not included in the update are Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei, as no published figures were available.

Last year, I had projected that tourist arrivals to Malaysia in 2023 would average 1.5 million per month. This was achieved during the last quarter of 2022 when results were later published.

Until Visit Malaysia Year 2014, our country attracted the largest number of international tourists to Southeast Asia but surrendered the crown to Thailand in 2015. Since then, we have remained number two, but for how long?

Even before March ended, Thailand announced that it has surpassed the target of 6 million arrivals in the first quarter of this year, with 6.15 million from January 1 to March 27. The Thai government is expecting 25 to 30 million arrivals for the full year.

In January, Tourism Malaysia (TM) was targeting 15.6 million tourist arrivals for 2023. In February, the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry revised the figure to 16.1 million arrivals and RM49.2 billion revenue.

Last year, I projected that Malaysia is likely to receive 18 million tourist arrivals in 2023.

Earlier, I had predicted 4,332,731 for 2020, 132,000 for 2021, and 10 million for 2022. Later, the numbers that came were 4,332,722, 134,728, and 10,070,964 respectively.

But why the lack of urgency in releasing monthly statistics of tourist arrivals? With computerisation, figures for all entries and exits from our country could easily be generated by pressing a few buttons.

If done on the first day of every month, the Immigration Department could then distribute relevant information to other government agencies such as the Tourism Ministry and TM.

Over the years, TM had been releasing figures for tourist arrivals on a quarterly basis and more than three months late. For example, the first quarter performance from January to March would only be released in early July.

Before releasing, the numbers must first be tabled in a cabinet meeting or announced by the minister. There were only slight changes in recent years as results could be posted monthly or released within three months.

Unless the figures need to be carefully massaged by TM to make them look better, there is no need for such delays. Monthly figures ought to be released within two weeks and tourism players must be more proactive.

Instead of merely posting the figures on TM’s website, there should be monthly engagements with industry players, and those interested could attend and learn the latest developments, and offer compliments, share concerns, or lodge complaints.

All travel and tour companies must be a member of at least one of the seven travel associations approved by the ministry. It may be expedient to engage only with these associations and not with too many individual industry players, but the method is not foolproof.

It has many inherent weaknesses as displayed by the lack of professionalism and knowledge among many tour operators, coupled with their lack of desire to learn and develop, or at least keep abreast with regional competitors.

In 2007, I conducted training on tourism policy for a large group of Vietnamese tourism and provincial leaders that travelled to Kuala Lumpur for a two-month programme funded by the European Union.

In 2016, I met one of the Vietnamese participants in Langkawi. We were there to join others from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines to attend a three-week programme to qualify as an Asean tourism master trainer.

The Vietnamese people are not just industrious, they are also hungry for success and the thirst to learn. They rapidly built up a strong ecosystem that provides useful knowledge and regular training to support the solid growth of their tourism industry.

In contrast, most tour operators in Malaysia are working in silos and lack understanding of the fundamentals. Other than customers handled by them, many are unclear on the number of inbound tourists, where they come from and what are their main expenditures.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.