Two airplane catastrophes put Malaysia on the map in a bad way last year. But they didn’t hurt the country’s tourism, and the higher visibility may even have helped: visitor numbers had their strongest growth in years.
For the past decade, Malaysia has run an elaborate campaign to market itself abroad as an ideal Asian destination, touting a multi-ethnic culture, lush rainforests and pristine beaches. Despite the effort to internationalize, its tourism industry still relies heavily on tightly-packed neighboring Singapore and in a renewed push the government had designated last year as “Visit Malaysia Year.”
So when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, it put the global spotlight on Malaysia and seemingly dealt a blow to its tourism strategy. A double whammy came four months later when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Photo: REUTERS
Tourism, however, grew at its fastest pace since 2008.
Figures for all of last year haven’t been released yet but the government’s January to October data shows 22.9 million visitors, a jump of nearly 10 percent from a year earlier. That far outpaced 2.5 percent growth for the same period in 2013 and a 0.7 percent rise in 2012. The full year growth rates for those two years are close to the 10-month figures.
“The bad publicity has made Malaysia more well known to the world,” said Jaya Kumar Sannadurai, vice president at Dayangti Transport and Tours. The overall effect on visitor numbers is probably marginal but being the center of attention “is an advantage to us in some ways,” he said.
The strong growth in tourism came despite a sharp drop in visitors from China, which had 153 nationals on Flight 370. Many in China were angered by Malaysia’s perceived mishandling of the tragedy.
The Malaysian government says satellite data showed the jet crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, but no wreckage has been found despite an exhaustive multi-nation search. Authorities believe the plane was flown deliberately off course, but are still investigating the cause of the disappearance.
Kidnappings since April of foreigners including a Chinese fish breeder and a Chinese female tourist from a resort in Malaysia’s Sabah state in Borneo by Philippine gangs also put off tourists. All were released after ransom was paid. Sabah, a popular destination for scuba-diving and nature trails, is a short boat ride from southern Philippines, home to Muslim militants and kidnap gangs.
For January to October, Chinese tourists to Malaysia dropped by 11 percent or some 175,000 people. It remained Malaysia’s third biggest source of visitors.
The aim of the Visit Malaysia campaign, with the endangered pot-bellied proboscis monkey as its mascot, was to lure 28 million visitors and 76 billion ringgit (US$21.1 billion) in spending last year. Tourism is already Malaysia’s second biggest earner of foreign exchange after manufactured goods.
The country might fall a little short of the 28 million visitors goal, but a high level of fully paid advance tour bookings and a quick change in marketing strategy by tourism officials helped keep the industry on a growth path overall.
Tourism Malaysia cut promotions in China and focused efforts on India and other markets after Flight 370’s disappearance, said its deputy director-general Azizan Noordin. This helped to boost growth in all markets for the first 10 months of last year, except China and Taiwan, he said.
Arrivals from India, which is the 6th biggest source of visitors for Malaysia, were up 21 percent and the number of South Koreans visiting increased by 43 percent. There was also strong growth from Western nations such as the UK, US, Australia and Germany.
But it was Singapore along with Indonesia and Thailand that provided the mass market numbers, together accounting for about two thirds of total visitors.
“Our Southeast Asian neighbors helped to keep the tourist numbers up. We could have done better if it wasn’t for the China market,” said Hamzah Rahmat, president of the Malaysian Tour and Travel Associations.
Other tour and travel agents said the industry also benefited from a weaker currency in the last quarter of the year, making Malaysia more attractive to foreigners. Cheaper air travel and more numerous flights, primarily due to the expansion of low-cost carriers in the region, also helped drive tourism.
“Regional travel is on the rise,” said Joseph Francis Mariasosay Xavier from World Discovery Travel. “I don’t think Flight 370 is a factor. People need and want to travel. It’s more important to have the right infrastructure and pricing in place.”
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