Towards consistent, sustainable tourism for Malaysia

The trick to make tourism flourish for all segments of the travel trade market is to make arrivals consistent and sustainable instead of just seasonal like what had transpired in the past, says a veteran travel trade practitioner Ahmad Pishol Isahak.

With a temperate weather except for the occasional heavy rains and droughts, Pishol said that tourism in locations such as Langkawi and Penang can be all – year around if the relevant authorities promote and market such inbound destinations effectively.

But in the past, the tourism trend in places like Langkawi, has always been seasonal, driven by public and school holidays, as well as the winter months in traditional markets such as Europe, China, India, Korea ,Japan and the Middle East, said Pishol.

The trend is now changing after the pandemic so Pishol in an interview, is hopeful that the country can tap on the global trend on frequent travels.

So as the country braces for the tourism comeback punctured by the launching of the “Visit Malaysia Year 26” campaign by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim last night in Malacca, Pishol said that the next step is to make arrivals consistent and to make products, as well as services which are sustainable, and available all year.

It is difficult to preach sustainability due to the adversities from climate change but Pishol said that the industry players have no choice but to subscribe to green initiatives to drive sustainable tourism with hope that it can also mitigate climate change.

He also lauded the move by Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) to sanction the Green and Geopark Excellence Awards (GAGA) touristy event as the first step towards making conservation and preservation as way of life for the industry.

GAGA, scheduled to be held on November 22 in Langkawi, is designed to incentivise the travel trade community to adopt green practises such as recycling and reducing waste.

It can also help position the island resort as an eco – friendly destination.

As for complaints that some travel trade members in Langkawi did not enjoy a huge inflow of tourists during Malaysia Day, Pishol said that if arrivals are constant instead of seasonal then every travel trade enterprise can enjoy the spillover effects.

The travel trade community also needs to invest heavily in marketing and promotions if they want to entice a higher number of tourists, said Pishol.

“It is a balancing act. We want tourists and we also want quality tourists – those willing to spend a bit. It is no point travelling if one refuses to enjoy what the destination entails. At least one night of dining out and staying overnight are tourism parameters.”

He hopes that LADA and Tourism Malaysia can work out packages which allows tourists to come all year around, meaning they need to market to all forms of travellers, but perhaps a niche in Langkawi, is that it is a family – friendly location.

The low end segment of tourism including new product operators, have signalled that they continue to struggle despite records showing a steep increase in arrivals.

“We have yet to fully recover from the pandemic,” said an operator Mason Loh.

Loh represents the budget / mid range – class hotels and new attractions, who have yet to secure big inflow of visitors and tourists unlike their established counterparts in the hospitality, food and beverages, retail as well as permanent leisure attractions.

Also, new restaurant operators are struggling because the capital needed from engaging experience staffers to supply costs and licensing requirements, is high.

“We lose out to the bigger players because they inherit a huge budget to spend on advertising, marketing and promotions. An entire division while we may only have one or two staffers devoted on this. Anyone knows, we need to market ourselves if we want tourists to know about it,” said Loh.

And online marketing effort is attached with huge spending needed to conduct boosting and it is a numbers driven concept rather than having quality content or versions which are more educational such as green – based tourism, said Loh.

He said that the authorities need to allocate more space and effort to promote the new products and attractions so the spillover effects of tourism is evenly spread.

It is also learnt that the tourism game is just among established players.

There is a cartel – like environment where new players must be orientated in or forced out if they do not subscribe to practises such as commissions and tips.

An operator of a major Penang attraction has confirmed that its attraction along the Batu Ferringhi tourism strip, was shunned by the local travel trade players just because he did not believe in the practise of handing out commissions.

Another element is that to offer commission, there is a marked up value to ticketing and operation costs, which then, makes the product or attraction unattractive to budget – orientated tourists.

Pishol’s counterpart Eric R. Sinnaya urged the tourism authorities to focus on bringing in big – ticket items such as concerts and mega conferences, as it is proven that such mega events pull in participants, who are willing to spend.

Sinnaya said that events such as concerts or award shows, besides the traditional mooting of the country as a getaway location, can help make arrivals more faithful than just seasonal, as well as enticing return travellers.