LETTERS: To promote Malaysia globally, Tourism Malaysia operates 30 offices around the world and has seven marketing representatives.
The offices are in East Asia (eight), Southeast Asia (six), West Asia (four), Europe (four), South Asia (three), Central Asia (two), Oceania (two) and North America (one).
There is no issue with putting all the eggs in one basket, as alleged by a tourism academic, who called on the Tourism Ministry to build a market portfolio. This is great for discussions, but hardly applicable in businesses that are too dynamic and changing rapidly.
Tourism is a business. It has to move with current demands and cannot be shaped by individual industry players.
To be successful, one must focus on the market with the highest potential or carve out a niche market by offering something unique.
The only caution is overspending capital for this.
Customers may switch to other suppliers or destinations. Entrepreneurs must go all out to secure as many sales as possible, regardless of whether business will stagnate or drop in the future.
In the first quarter of the year, Malaysia received 758,772 Chinese tourists.
If the number stays similar for the rest of the year, the total will reach 3,035,088, short of the targeted five million.
No surprise that Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing is working hard to get more tourists from China.
In 2019, 11 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand and spent 544 billion baht (RM70 billion).
That year, only 3.1 million of them came to Malaysia, spending only RM15.32 billion.
Perhaps, we can learn from Sabah and Sarawak's experience with tourism.
The Sabah Tourism Board said the state saw 577,943 international visitors and 912,965 Malaysian visitors from January to June.
The Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Ministry said the state saw 1,498,102 international visitors and 915,017 Malaysian visitors in the same period.
Does this mean Sarawak is more successful in tourism promotion, with a total of 2,413,119 visitors compared with Sabah's 1,490,108?
The main reason Sarawak's number is higher is because of its proximity to Brunei, allowing land border crossing, a bit like Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.
A total of 969,546, Bruneians entered Sarawak, or 65 per cent of international visitors. Similarly, Singaporeans make up 40 to 50 per cent of foreign tourists to Malaysia since 1965.
Sarawak's main international visitors are from Indonesia, China, Singapore, the Philippines, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan.
For Sabah, the top 10 origin countries are China, Brunei, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States and Australia.
Clearly, Sabah has been very successful in attracting a wider range of international visitors, especially from China and South Korea, as the combined figure is 294,482, compared with Sarawak's 39,786 in the same period.
Sabah and Sarawak are on the right track in promoting tourism, especially in attracting foreign visitors. Other states would do well to look at what Sabah and Sarawak are doing and innovate for better tourist arrival numbers.
Y.S. CHAN
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times