KOTA KINABALU: Tourism in Malaysia is experiencing encouraging growth with RM21.4 billion revenue in the first quarter of this year – an increase of 16.9 per cent.
Tourism Malaysia Chairman Datuk Ahmad Shah Hussein Tambakau said there were 6,696,230 visitors which was a 2.7 per cent increase compared to the corresponding period last year.
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“Overall, in 2018 some 25.8 million tourists came to Malaysia and spent RM84.1 billion which resulted in positioning Malaysia in 15th place among countries in the world with the highest tourist arrivals.
“In addition, Malaysia is also 21st in the list of countries that recorded highest tourism revenue. The information was gathered by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in its Barometer report issued in May this year,” he said at a ‘Kupi-Kupi’ event with Tourism Malaysia in conjunction with the 2020 Visit Malaysia Year at Hard Rock Café, Saturday.
The event organised by Tourism Malaysia urged media support in Sabah for promoting VM2020 and was attended by some 40 media practitioners from Sabah.
In 2018, he said arrivals were recorded at 25.8 million visitors with total receipts of RM84.1 billion also with an increase by 2.4 per cent compared to 2017
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He said the domestic tourism sector continues to be the main contributor and has been promoted through exhibitions, travel marts and smart partnership.
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Meanwhile, Tourism Malaysia Director-General Datuk Musa Yusof said the department is using digital marketing to promote the 2020 Visit Malaysia (VM) campaign.
“The campaign’s focus is on digital marketing through a dedicated VM2020 website, the use of hashtags for VisitMalaysia2020, VM2020 and Malaysia Truly Asia.
“Tourism Malaysia was leveraging on its strong presence in social media, which as at June 20 had 3.3 million followers on Facebook, 73,000 followers on Instagram, 422,480 followers on Twitter and 45.6 million views on YouTube.
Musa said the VM 2020 promotional efforts were also taking off via the Tourism Malaysia Mega Familiarisation programme where international media practitioners, including social media influencers, and travel agents are invited to get a first-hand experience of Malaysia.
So far this year 86 international participants had taken part in four Mega Familiarisation programmes while another three programmes are in the pipeline within the new few months with an anticipated 90 participants.
Musa said the Mega Familiarisation programme was one of the most effective marketing strategies undertaken by Tourism Malaysia.
In fact, he said in 2018, a total of 80 participants had taken part from 10 countries, yielding a return on investment amounting to RM3.7 million in publicity value from the various articles, documentaries and social media publicity generated.
“Tourism Malaysia projected 30 million visitors by 2020 to generate tourism revenue at RM100 billion.
“The promotion for this campaign will focus on the ‘high yield’ market in Asean, Chian, India, United Kingdom and Germany,” Musa said.
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As for the Logo of the VM2020, he said Tourism Malaysia has organised a contest to design and develop the logo and received 586 participations from public.
He said the selected and winning logo would be launched by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed on July 22.
