How M’sia can grow its global tourism based on Macao’s insights

Suppose Malaysian tourism and the PETRONAS Twin Towers come to thoughts. They’re featured in virtually each commercial materials to advertise our nation.

Certain, they’re a grand sight to behold, and our delight in them is justified. However Malaysia has a lot extra to supply, and its potential simply isn’t being given sufficient consideration to. 

So, how can we tackle this?

On the latest The Macao Showcase and MICE & Luxurious Discussion board in Singapore, we bought to see for ourselves and listen to from a panel of consultants on the way to efficiently showcase a location as a vacationer vacation spot.

Each occasions had been hosted by Sands China Ltd, which owns and operates multi-use built-in resorts in Macao, and held at Marina Bay Sands, its sister property in Singapore.

Why look to Macao for instance?

Macao has at all times had a powerful tourism sector, with annual arrivals above 30 million for consecutive six years earlier than reaching its peak of 39,340,181 guests in 2019.

Following the reopening of its tourism sector for worldwide guests, Macao has additionally seen a powerful restoration efficiency. 

It started welcoming over one million guests month-to-month in 2023, and in April 2023, vacationer arrivals broke the two million mark, bringing its present complete in Q1 of the 12 months to 4.96 million guests. If it merely maintains this fee, Macao will simply hit shut to twenty million guests by finish 2023. 

(For distinction, Malaysia has focused a extra modest 16 million guests in 2023, and is banking on a “late surge” in vacationer arrivals to deliver our numbers up.)

There might be many elements as to why Malaysia is seeing a slower pickup fee of tourists. However after visiting Macao’s showcase and discussion board, it’s clear that Malaysia has a number of issues to study from the area in the case of showcasing our tourism enchantment.

1. SMEs’ position in tourism is presently ignored, each the federal government and personal firms ought to step in to repair that.

One thing that was palpable on the showcase was Macao’s delight in its SMEs, and the lengths that Sands China Ltd went to, to make it possible for they had been spotlighted as a part of Macao’s tourism.

This included highlighting a 90-year-old bakery that’s well-known for its almond cookies (Yeng Kee Bakery), Macao’s first gin distillery born in the course of the pandemic (Owl Man), and a vogue model that has made it into British Vogue, Vogue Italia, and the London Trend Week (Nuno Lopes).

These aren’t the forms of SMEs we’d sometimes consider once we’re requested which native manufacturers make us proud, and that everybody else ought to learn about. 

As a substitute, a whole lot of our focus is on tech-slanted SMEs, who usually tend to obtain help from government-owned programmes to commercialise efficiently in home and worldwide markets.

However do these SMEs play a job in highlighting Malaysia’s heritage and wealthy tradition particularly? 

To that finish, Malaysia must determine its personal SMEs which have tourism enchantment, and the federal government together with non-public firms should recognise their worth and lend help to uplift them.

We have to transfer past particular points of interest like KLCC, our islands, or caves, and encourage worldwide guests to return and discover our foodscape, our heritage-rich vogue scene, and extra.

Let’s give these SMEs a worldwide platform to draw international clients too, as a result of it’s time to maneuver previous native supporting native, and head in direction of international supporting native if we need to develop each our SMEs and our tourism sector.

2. Tourism isn’t nearly one resort or one location, however the cohesive and complete expertise that guests get from a group.

In the course of the MICE & Luxurious Discussion board, we learnt that one resort or one location alone can not carry a rustic’s tourism sector.

For a vacationer go to price remembering, a rustic or group ought to supply a cohesive and complete expertise.

Cohesive that means that each one the vacationer points of interest (whether or not a pure attraction, a meals spot, or an SME’s choices) play off one another effectively. 

All of them will need to have a objective to be highlighted, and the way do their particular person functions contribute to the larger image? How can they arrive collectively to create a complete expertise for guests?

An instance of a complete expertise might begin in a resort, the place it serves or makes use of merchandise from native SMEs, organises excursions to particular native points of interest, and has a purchasing advanced in its neighborhood. 

All this can make the resort greater than only a place to relaxation and rejuvenate, and vacationers don’t must really feel just like the burden of discovering issues to do is on their shoulders, as a result of they have already got these “packaged” experiences in a single place.

3. The vacation spot’s story issues and a healthful narrative is necessary to place us on vacationers’ radar.

Following the above, when extra consideration is paid to curating cohesive and complete experiences for guests past a single location or exercise, it’s simpler to form a story round a vacation spot.

Though Macao is a vacation spot that many see as being for both enterprise or leisure, its best-known narrative remains to be that it’s a spot with a wealthy colonial heritage, confirmed by its 22 websites on the UNESCO World Heritage Checklist.

Fashionable constructions like luxurious resorts and convention centres and purchasing complexes could be replicated anyplace with the appropriate sources—however a vacation spot’s tradition is one it calls its personal, and that’s what must be the spine of its story.

So, what’s Malaysia’s story, and the way can totally different stakeholders, from the federal government to SMEs, contribute to and complement it?

4. MICE occasions that encourage open communication and discourse with main and minor stakeholders in tourism and different sectors will up the vacation spot’s international enchantment.

From The Macao Showcase to the MICE & Luxurious Discussion board, all of our senses had been effectively engaged. 

We loved the sights of detailed units replicating Macao, smelled and tasted F&B distinctive to the area, bought to the touch numerous vogue merchandise on show, and had the pleasure of listening to panels of consultants of their fields.

Mixed, these experiences actually cemented the enchantment of Macao as a must-visit vacationer vacation spot in our minds. 

It speaks to the significance of getting well-organised MICE (Conferences, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) occasions catered to a global crowd if we need to up Malaysia’s tourism enchantment.

Alongside the sights, we should always have substance in our occasions and supply the concerned stakeholders with a platform to have open communication and impactful discourse. 

These stakeholders shouldn’t solely be from the tourism trade both, however must also come from the style, arts, and tradition sector, and naturally, be made up of SMEs too.

Information is king in efficient tourism

All the above factors solely have credibility as a result of Macao has confirmed that it is aware of its numbers, and it is aware of the way to develop these numbers.

That’s why it’s necessary for stakeholders in a rustic’s tourism sector to have the appropriate knowledge.

We have to know what individuals are coming to our nation for, how lengthy they’re staying for, what they’re spending on, what number of are returning within the following or subsequent years, and different knowledge factors. Solely then can we plan the appropriate sorts of tourism MICE occasions.

It’s time for Malaysia to cease hiding in KLCC’s shadow and solely relying on the federal government to push Malaysia as a vacationer vacation spot. 

Everybody wants to return collectively to supply up the very best model of Malaysia as a go-to vacation spot, be it for enterprise or leisure, and we will take a web page out of Macao’s e book for starters.

Be taught extra about Sands China Ltd right here.
Learn different articles we’ve written about tourism right here.