RM 84.1B IN OVERALL TOURISM RECEIPTS COLLECTED LAST YEAR
China travellers’ expenditure makes up RM12.3b of total
MALAYSIA collected RM84.1 billion in overall tourism receipts last year, its highest ever, with China tourists’ expenditure making up RM12.3 billion of the total.
Chinese tourists who had been the key growth driver across Southeast Asia for the past decade would continue to support tourism growth in Malaysia, said Maybank Kim Eng.
In its latest report titled “Blue Skies, But Keep Your Seatbelts Fastened”, the investment bank says it expects more Chinese to visit Malaysia.
While there was higher tourism receipts collection, data from the Malaysia Tourism Board showed visitor arrivals to Malaysia had eased 3.0 per cent in 2017 and declined by another 0.4 per cent last year to 25.8 million.
In delivering the report here yesterday, Maybank Kim Eng analyst Wong Chew Hann said the lack of promotion over the past few months partly contributed to the decline.
“That is something that the government needs to do to step up its efforts.”
Last year, Singaporeans accounted for 41 per cent of 25.8 million tourist arrivals to Malaysia.
However, congestion at land checkpoints due to a new biometric system and the strengthening of the ringgit against the Singapore dollar has deterred some tourists from crossing over for a visit.
Wong suggested Malaysia consider adopting e-visas for visitors from Singapore to remedy the land checkpoints issue.
In April 2017, a Singapore dollar was equal to RM3.17 but today it is about RM3.04.
Last year, 2.9 million tourists from China visited Malaysia.
Recently, China’s Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian had reportedly said he expected 3.5 million tourists from China to fly into Malaysia this year.
As China visitors spend an average of RM4,200, which is a lot more than other visitors, Maybank Kim Eng believes more inbound Chinese visitors this year would moderate the adverse impact from fewer Singaporean visitors.
Tourists from China are known to frequent casinos.
In anticipation of higher tourist arrivals from China, Asian governments, including Malaysia’ s, are increasingly turning to integrated resorts for tax revenues.
Maybank Kim Eng gaming analyst Samuel Yin said Malaysian casino tax rates had been hiked by 10 per cent since November last year.
Tourism is an important aspect of Malaysia’s economy because it is a driver of services exports, current account and foreign currency reserves.
Malaysia ranks well globally in terms of cost of living and quality of healthcare.
As at August last year, there were 35,800 participants of the “Malaysia My Second Home” programme who contributed RM13 billion to the country’s economy.
“Many of the participants were from China and based in Johor due to the presence of China developers there. Chinese nationals also like Penang. Western participants, however, prefer Penang and Langkawi,” said Wong.