Despite recent incidents with the country’s national airline, tourism to Malaysia is still as busy as ever, according to Deputy Director General of Tourism Malaysia Dato’ Azizan Noordin.
Speaking to KarryOn at the Malaysia Tourism Roadshow last month, Mr Noordin explained while families and young couples are the traditional demographic from Australia, more and more young tourists are heading to the Southeast Asia destination because of its new adventures.
“We’re becoming more popular among the younger travellers because we’re introducing new adventure activities such as white water rafting.”
Dato’ Azizan Noordin, Tourism Malaysia Deputy Director General
Read more of our chat with Mr Noordin below.
How big is the Aussie market to Malaysia?
From Australia last year, Malaysia received 571,000 people. From New Zealand we received 67,000. We’re very popular for people from Oceania and they’re our second largest medium-haul market after China.
Last year we welcomed 1.6 million Chinese, which is still very small compared to the 180 million that travelled abroad last year.
After China and Oceania, India is our next biggest medium-haul market.
Are they flying there or cruising?
Flying is still the most popular way to visit Malaysia from Australia but slowly cruising is coming up.
We have more cruise ships visiting now, they’re travelling between Singapore and Phuket and stopping at Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
Australians and New Zealanders want to cruise but to cruise from Australia is too far for some so they’re boarding the ones that leave Singapore and they visit, some stay overnight and others visit for six or seven hours and then continue sail on.
Do you have any plans to attract more ships?
We do have plans to encourage ships to visit. In Penang we’re building a passenger terminal that special for cruises, we’re hoping this will attract more big ships.
I think at the moment the traffic is now large enough for us to invest a lot of money but probably in the next five to ten years we can get more.
Have the incidents with MAS affected tourism?
Last year, despite the incidents, we still a 6.1 percent increase in tourism to Malaysia with over four million visitors. The only market that was down was the China market, which was down by 8.1 percent.
Perhaps we have seen an impact during the first three months of the year, with arrivals slipping by 14 percent. But this decrease didn’t just occur for Malaysia tourism also fell for Singapore.
Thailand is the only one that isn’t suffering because they have lifted the visa for Chinese tourists.
What could entice more Aussies to visit Malaysia?
At the moment, the currency is down in Malaysia so tourists from Australia can really get more for their money – for example what you pay for a burger here in Australia you can use to get three burgers in Malaysia.
The government has also lifted the import tax for so Malaysia is very attractive for shopping plus were authentic quality brands.
What the demographic like from Australia?
It’s a mix of young couples, backpackers and families. We’re becoming more popular among the younger travellers because we’re introducing new adventure activities such as white water rafting.
In Borneo there’s one attraction called Sea Walking and it’s for those that really don’t want to dive but want the underwater experience. They put on a suit like an astronaut and they go down then you get to feed the fish underwater.
