Transport and Tourism

What is tourism? Tourism is travelling for predominantly recreational and leisure purposes or the provision of services to support this leisure travel. Nowadays, tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In Year 2004, there were over 763 million international tourist arrivals. Tourists have always travelled to distant parts of the world to see great buildings or other works of art, to learn new languages, to experience new cultures and to taste new cuisine.

There are various types of tourism. Health tourism is associated with spas, places with natural mineral water, treating diseases from gout to liver disorders and bronchitis. Winter tourism involves winter sports like snowboarding and skiing in the mountainous areas while mass tourism is travelling to great seaside resort, beaches and islands. Pilgrimage is a tourism that involves travelling to sacred places for religious reasons.

Tourism is vital for our country due to the income generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists, the taxes from businesses in tourism industry, and the opportunity of employment in service industries related with tourism. These service industries include transportation services such as cruise ships and taxis, accommodation services like hotels, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, and other hospitality industry such as spas and resorts. Malaysia was the most popular tourist destination in the Asia-Pacific region during the Visit Malaysia Years in 1990 and 1994. It was the top foreign exchange earner, ranking in billions of ringgit. This year, it is the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and it is expected to be more spectacular. Malaysia has everything under the sun that attract tourists – beautiful sandy beaches, exotic island resorts, luxurious hotels, natural tropic forests, and a wide array of festivals celebrated by people with a myriad of races, religions and cultures.

What are the ways to enhance our tourism industry? Travel agents must be creative and come up with new and interesting packages for tourists. Advertising by word of mouth or through brochures alone is not enough. They have to promote a variety of interesting tourist destinations in Malaysia and provide updates of the latest development in the tourism industry in order to woo foreigners to visit Malaysia. Services industries also play an important role in developing the tourism industry. Transportation services, accommodation services and hospitality industry must improve the quality of their services such as public transports, hotels, restaurants, spas, resorts and others. Besides that, the Malaysian public should also play its part in keeping the country clean while showing a good image to tourists. The media should come up with programs and articles to place Malaysia on the world tourist map.

The bottom line is that with everyone working hand in hand, it is not impossible for Malaysia to once again emerge as the top tourist destination in the Asia-Pacific region.