History Of Tourism In Malaysia

THE INSIGHT OF TOURISM SATELLITE ACCOUNT, MALAYSIA

MAZREHA YA’AKUB

ABSTRACT

Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), Malaysia provides information on tourism statistics in Malaysia such as an expenditure of inbound, domestic, outbound, internal, production and employment in the tourism industry. The aims of the paper were to describe the structure of tourism industry and to determine the key roles of health and education sector in tourism. Data were obtained from Economic Census/Survey, Domestic Tourism Survey, Departing Visitor and Malaysia Outbound Survey conducted by Department of Statistics, Malaysia (DOSM) and Ministry of Tourism and Culture (MOTAC). TSA was compiled based on the Recommended Methodological Framework (RMF) and International Recommendations

During the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005) period, foreign exchange earnings from tourists increased at an average annual growth rate of 12.4 percent, from 17.3 billion in 2000 to almost 50 billion in 2008 (Ministry of Tourism, 2008). Although adversely affected by the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the tourism industry has otherwise remained robust. During the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010), tourism was expected to continue as a major source of new growth and a driver in the services sector (Economic Planning Unit, 2005). The Visit Malaysia 2007 campaign and a series of high profile events celebrating Malaysia’s 50th independence also proved successful, which saw 20.97 million tourists into the country, representing an increase of 19.5 percent increase year on year (Malaysia Tourism Report, 2008). A record high of 22.05 million tourist arrival, however, was recorded for 2008 surpassing the 21.5 million target set under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (Ministry of Tourism, 2008). Among the tourism products that is being heavily promoted, health tourism has the potential of offering a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, with earnings valued at RM 925 million in 2005, exceeding education tourism which stood at RM 450 million for the same year (Economic Planning Unit, 2005). Research has also shown that health tourists spend twice as much as normal toursist-US$362 compared with

Data collected from DTS are the core in compiling TSA in Malaysia. This survey is carried out from January-December on domestic tourist at selected household members both in urban and rural areas in all states to calculate domestic tourism in the country. DTS covers those who stay in Malaysia for at least a year and above. Beside citizen and permanent resident, expatriate and non-citizen are also inclusive. The information that can be obtained from DTS are average per capita, average length of stay, demographic profile of tourist, travelling pattern and component of expenditure. The frame used for this survey is from the National Household Sampling Frame (NHSF), which was made up of Enumeration Blocks (EBs) created for the 2000 Population and Housing Census. A two-stage stratified sample design is applied to determine the sample size for each year, with two levels of stratification,