19 August 2022 – YB Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy Shukri, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture represented Malaysia at the 11th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting (TMM11) held in Bangkok, Thailand. The meeting, which was held for the first time since 2018, will be part of the agenda in formulating tourism policies in the APEC region.
According to Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy, Malaysia ranked 2nd in The Economist’s 2022 Travel-Ready Index for Asia after being recognized as one of the top countries in the world with the highest vaccination rates. In fact, within just a few months of the reopening of the country’s borders, Malaysia recorded more than 1 million foreign tourist arrivals. This success has allowed Malaysia to reset its new target for foreign tourist arrivals to 4.5 million this year, which will be reviewed every three (3) months taking into account current developments especially as more countries begin to ease travel restrictions on their borders.
He added that Malaysia expects the tourism recovery phase to take at least 2 to 3 years to recover. At the same time, Malaysia acknowledges that targeted support is needed to ensure the continuity of business and community activities related to the tourism industry can be restored immediately. Last year, Malaysia spent USD 14.6 million (RM61 million) in financial assistance to benefit 29,286 tourism industry players. The commitment continues this year with an allocation of USD 20 million (RM85 million) to tourism operators consisting of travel and tourism companies, spa and wellness center operators, homestay owners and tour guides to help ease their burden.
Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy also shared about the implementation of strategic actions of the Tourism Recovery Framework 2.0 which consists of five (5) strategic pillars towards recovery and resilience for the medium to long term, namely;
- Supporting tourism businesses with recovery measures;
- Restoring tourist confidence and smooth intraregional and international travel;
- Reinventing tourism products and services to drive competitiveness;
- Aligning tourism with elements of sustainability and inclusivity; and
- Strengthen recovery with long-term resilience and crisis preparedness.
“Malaysia is committed to establishing cooperation at the international level, especially through the APEC platform, and recommends that engagement and sharing of views be held continuously among APEC economists, especially in the areas of digitalisation, the use of technology and sustainable tourism investment. This is important to ensure that the tourism industry will be stronger and more resilient to face any challenges and obstacles in the future,” explained Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy.
He also invited and welcomed all delegates to participate in the World Tourism Conference 2022 (WTC 2022), an event co-organised by Malaysia through MOTAC with UNWTO. This year’s edition will be held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, from 28 to 30 November 2022. Themed ‘Tourism Futures Reimagined’, the conference will serve as a platform to discuss strategies that can drive the recovery and resilience of world tourism post-pandemic.
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