By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Oct 18: International tourists spend the least in Malaysia compared to neighboring countries in the Asean region despite having more attractions in terms of food, culture and destinations.
Caretaker Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Dato Sri Nancy Shukri said one of the reasons is because the nation’s tourism products are valued at low prices.
“When the price is low, people think that the product has little to no value.
“Take Hilton Hotel or Pullman Hotel (in Kuching) for example, the service quality is very high.
“But since the hotels are located in Kuching where they fear the city folk would think of them as ‘too expensive’, the hotels retain the prices lower than the hotels in Kuala Lumpur despite being of same service quality.
“So we have to change the public mentality that the service quality in Sarawak is very low,” she said during the opening ceremony of the Youth In Tourism (YIT) 2022 programme held at Pullman Hotel here today.
Nancy further said Malaysia is known for having the best tourism standard operating procedures (SOPs) among all the countries in the world but it needs to work on its tourism ‘appeal’ as it has a lot more untapped potential that can provide a competitive advantage compared to other countries.
She cited the price comparison of going on holiday to Langkawi and Thailand, which she noted as being the preferred choice of Malaysians travelling locally or abroad.
“This is because Thailand is very good in promoting through social media.
“Thailand also has many ways (tourism strategies) such as charging fees, and once the number of tourists have dropped, they change (strategy).
“So if we (Malaysia) use the existing tourism SOPs and promote them on social media, it will attract tourists to come to the country apart from the need of improving the quality of our tourism industry,” she added.
In addition, she said it is timely for the local tourism industry to shift its focus from ‘mass tourism’ to high-yield tourism and sustainability, collaboration with relevant parties as well as ‘story-telling’ or ‘content-creating’ to provide immersive experience as means to attract tourists.
At the inaugural YIT2022, a total of 300 students of higher learning institutions, tourism product operators, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil servants participated in a forum titled’Inspiration of Youths Opens a New Leaf in the National Tourism Industry’.
The programme will be held in five more locations throughout the nation namely Pulau Pinang, Pahang, Johor, Sabah and Kuala Lumpur. — DayakDaily
