Photo for representation. (Wikimedia Commons)
New Delhi: Malaysia reopened its borders to tourists in April 2022, before dropping all vaccination and PCR-test requirements in August. However, tourist industry figures have offered a range of explanations for Malaysia’s weak rebound from the pandemic compared with its neighbours.
Malaysia’s tourism industry struggling
Malaysia welcomed about 3 million visitors in 2022, up from 134,728 visitors the previous year, according to Tourism Malaysia. The intake was just about 12 percent of the number that arrived in 2019. According to a report in Al Jazeera, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia — which welcomed 10 million, 4.6 million and 4.58 million visitors, respectively — saw arrivals return to about one-quarter of pre-pandemic levels.
Vietnam’s 3.6 million foreign visitors, although short of the government’s target, was about one-fifth of its intake in 2019.
Ban on alcohol sales?
Malaysian Islamic Party-backed state government in Kedah, home to the popular duty-free resort island Langkawi, caused jitters in the tourism sector when it floated a possible ban on alcohol sales.
Malaysia has some of the world’s highest alcohol taxes and imposes harsh punishments for drug offences, including the death penalty for trafficking.
Neighbouring Thailand, meanwhile, has built on its reputation for having a tolerant attitude towards vices, decriminalising cannabis in June 2022, said a report in Al Jazeera.
Malaysia has a much wider variety of cuisines, but the food and beverage scene and quality isn’t quite up to par compared to their neighbours, which also have lower alcohol tax and are more open to new ideas of tourism.
How the pandemic affected Malaysia
Tourist arrivals to Malaysia fell by 83.4% in 2020 with the country only welcoming about four million tourists.
The country recorded a total of 4,332,722 international tourist arrivals in 2020, a marked decrease from the 26,100,784 tourist arrivals recorded in 2019. The massive drop in international tourist arrivals is attributed to the closure of Malaysian borders.
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