MALAYSIA’S tourism industry performed above expectations in 2013, registering good growth in both tourism receipts and arrivals despite a challenging year.

Tourist receipts of RM65.4 billion (US$19.9 billion) exceeded the initial target of RM65 billion, and grew 8.1 per cent from RM60.6 billion in 2012.

Tourist arrivals also grew 2.7 per cent to 25.7 million compared to 25 million in 2012.

Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, said in a press release: “We are pleased to achieve such a substantial growth in tourist receipts last year. This is in line with the broad objectives of the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) and Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan to increase yield per tourist.

“Last year, the average tourist spending per capita was RM2,544.90 per person, compared to RM2,419.10 per person in 2012.”

He added that tourism was the sixth largest contributor to the economy, moving up one spot compared with 2012 and contributing RM51.5 billion to Gross National Income in 2013.

He also attributed the growth in arrivals and spending to the government’s focus on the initiatives under NKEA, including the promotion of Malaysia as a duty-free and affordable luxury shopping destination, as well as strategic public-private partnerships.

The ASEAN market remains the largest contributor with 19.1 million arrivals, representing a 74.3 per cent share of overall arrivals. The medium-haul market was the second-largest market with 4.9 million arrivals, followed by the longhaul, with 1.7 million arrivals.

The top 10 source markets were Singapore, Indonesia, China, Brunei, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Australia, Japan and the UK.

Markets showing double-digit growth in arrivals were mainly from the medium-haul and longhaul countries with Turkish arrivals surging 28.9 per cent, assisted by the seven-weekly Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur flights by Malaysia Airlines and Turkish Airlines, as well as the re-opening of Tourism Malaysia Office in Istanbul.

Other markets showing strong growth included China (14.9 per cent), which benefited from AirAsia X’s new six-weekly Shanghai-Kuala Lumpur flights and seven-weekly Hangzhou-Kota Kinabalu flights.

Swedish arrivals rose 13.1 per cent on the back of strong promotional efforts there, in addition to thrice-weekly flights from Stockholm to Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur by Turkish Airlines from April 2013, as well as seven-weekly flights by Emirates from Stockholm to Dubai and Kuala Lumpur from last September.

Double-digit growth was also recorded for Bangladesh (55.7 per cent), Cambodia (28.6 per cent), Iraq (27 per cent), Egypt (25.3 per cent), Russia (18.8 per cent), Taiwan (18 per cent), Ireland (13 per cent), Vietnam (11.7 per cent), Norway (11.6 per cent), and Spain (10.9 per cent).

However, last year’s arrivals from Iran dropped significantly by 38.5 per cent, due partly to AirAsia X’s suspension of its services to Tehran in October 2012, while Thailand’s political woes throughout 2013 caused arrivals from the country to drop 8.4 per cent.

SINGAPORE Changi Airport has sealed its status as a major aviation hub in Asia-Pacific with record-breaking passenger traffic and more destinations added to its network in 2013.

The airport yesterday released official figures for 2013 that showed a total of 53.7 million passengers and 343,800 landings and take-offs, registering five per cent and 5.9 per cent growth respectively.

Besides breaking new ground for the number of passengers handled annually, the airport also smashed its monthly and daily records. It handled 5.1 million passengers in December – the first time the figure has surpassed five million since the airport’s opening – and 191,800 passengers and 1,100 flights on December 21.

Changi’s strong performance is fuelled by exponential growth in travel demand within the Asia-Pacific region. Travel to South-east and North-east Asia, which make up almost 70 per cent of the facility’s traffic, rose 8.2 per cent and seven per cent respectively.

Airside view of Singapore Changi Airport — Credit: Changi Airport Group

Indonesia is the biggest market (over 7.4 million passengers or 8.8 per cent growth year-on-year) and Jakarta is again the busiest route for Changi, followed by Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Manila. Bali (Denpasar) attracted 17 per cent year-on-year growth through Changi, making it the fastest growing of Changi’s top 10 routes.

Changi welcomed a host of new links and airports in 2013. Seven new Chinese destinations were added to its network namely Guilin, Jinan, Lijiang, Nanchang, Nanning, Ningbo and Wuxi, while Mandalay (Myanmar), Kalibo (the Philippines) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) are also now accessible from Singapore.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian Airlines (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 25, 2013), Swiss International Air Lines (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 27, 2012), Golden Myanmar Airlines and Bangladesh’s United Airways and Regent Airways, now have operations based at Changi.

METASEARCH engine Wego has unveiled the most favoured destinations of travellers from Singapore, China and Hong Kong in the past year, and predicted which destinations will gain favour in the coming Year of the Horse.

David Lai, market development manager for Singapore and Malaysia, Wego, said Bangkok and Hong Kong had been top holiday destinations for Singaporeans last year, due to “short travelling times and the strengthening Singapore dollar against the baht and Hong Kong dollar”.

Looking ahead, Lai forecasts that Malaysia, especially Johor, and Myanmar would catch the fancy of Singapore travellers.

“Johor has grown in popularity for Singaporeans, especially with the addition of a number of family-oriented attractions and theme parks such as Legoland, Hello Kitty Land as well as the shopping opportunities at the Johor Premium Outlets,” he explained.

“Myanmar is capturing the attention of Singaporeans, and both business and leisure travel to Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, continues growing, beginning in earnest in 2012.”

On the other hand, Zhao Tang, market development manager for Wego China, said: “Taiwan and Hong Kong are still the most popular destinations for Chinese mainlanders, however internationally we expect extensive growth as a greater choice of cheaper flights become available and foreign countries welcome Chinese travellers by improving their visa services.”

Chinese travellers are also fond of island resort locations such as Bali and Phuket, as well as Kota Kinabalu. “Both Indonesia and Thailand provide visa-on-arrival facilities, and Malaysia offers a simplified visa application process and 120-hour visa-free transits, which has also helped make these destinations so popular.”

Zhao expects countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Korea to become more popular with Chinese visitors with the relaxation of visa restrictions there.

Meanwhile, Wego’s market development manager for Taiwan and Hong Kong, James Huang, believes South-east Asia and North-east Asia will see more Hong Kong travellers this year due to LCC growth in the region.

As for last year, he said: “There’s been tremendous growth in Hong Kongers travelling to nearby countries such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea; while long distance travel to the US and Australia has enjoyed a mild increase.”

CHINA has displayed extraordinary growth in outbound tourist as long predicted by tourism pundits.

For full-year 2013, 97 million Chinese travelled overseas, according to the state-run China Daily, which quoted official statistics from China’s National Tourism Administration.

The figure is up 14 million from the previous year and a far cry from the 29 million of 2004.

The UN World Tourism Organization last year reported that China had overtaken Germany as the world’s top-spending source market, having spent a total of US$102 billion in 2012 (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 8, 2013).

GOOD food and excellent shopping opportunities are two of the biggest draws for affluent Singapore travellers, a group that plans to spend even more on travel in the year ahead.

According to the Visa Global Intentions Study 2013, commissioned by Visa to Millward Brown, travellers with household incomes of S$11,000 (US$8,669) or higher are classified as affluent.

For this group, good food (45 per cent) and good shopping (37 per cent) were the most important reasons for destination choice. Given this, it is unsurprising that affluent Singaporeans spend heavily on retail (28 per cent), dining (26 per cent) and activities (19 per cent).

Affluent Singapore travellers spend above the global average at medium and large retailers, high-end restaurants and on entertainment and nightlife.

While 71 per cent of Singaporeans travel with relatives compared to the global average of 69 per cent, 16 per cent of affluent Singaporean travellers make trips alone as compared to eight per cent of other Singaporeans.

This group is also more likely to travel further and stay longer, with 24 per cent taking flights of more than nine hours for holidays and 37 per cent staying seven nights or more.

High expenditure destinations are increasingly popular for this group, who also have plans to travel as far as the US.

According to the report, affluent Singaporeans are expected to double their travel expenditure with an average spend of US$5,501, or more than twice the global average of US$2,501.

Fieldwork for the study was conducted between November and December 2012 and based on online and offline surveys with travellers aged 15 and above across 25 markets in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and the Americas.

TRAVELLERS ushering in the New Year in Taipei can expect to shell out 217 per cent more than usual for a hotel room or an estimated S$564 (US$446), making the city one of the more expensive destinations to celebrate 2014 in Asia-Pacific.

Based on German hotel search and price comparison site Trivago’s Hotel Price Index, Taipei has recorded the largest difference between December 31 and regular room prices of the 10 Asia-Pacific destinations ranked.

Following Taipei are Sydney, which has seen a 162 per cent increase over its monthly average; Pattaya, 104 per cent; Hong Kong, 82 per cent, Bali (Kuta), 80 per cent; Tokyo, 72 per cent; Singapore, 39 per cent and Shanghai, 13 per cent.

Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur were the only cities out of 10 to have rates decrease over the New Year period, with Bangkok prices dropping seven per cent and Kuala Lumpur, 21 per cent.

Comparisons were based on average price per night in Singapore dollars for a standard double room.

However, Taipei cedes its top position to Sydney in terms of absolute room rates for New Year’s Eve. While a room in Taipei costs an average of S$564, travellers to Sydney can expect an average of S$676.

Right behind second-place Taipei is Hong Kong, with a price tag of S$507 a night. Meanwhile, pricey Singapore is charging S$338 a night.

“Hotel price increases over this New Year’s Eve are not too marked in Singapore and its neighbouring cities – an ideal situation for Singaporeans looking for a short getaway or a staycation to ring in 2014,” said Haryati Afendy, spokesperson for Trivago in South-east Asia.

TO SURVIVE in an increasingly digitised world, travel agencies must ensure their web platforms are straightfoward, personal and mobile-friendly, said Alan Gertner, industry manager, online agencies, Google.

Sharing the results of Google’s study of 11,000 travellers across 11 Asia-Pacific countries that was conducted in July, he found that travellers wanted an efficient way of dealing with travel online.

While 83 per cent, or eight in 10 travellers, use online to plan hotel stays, 14 per cent were overwhelmed by the amount of information on the web.

“(Booking or purchasing travel) online is not a simple process for them. The future of travel online needs to be simpler and more unified,” Gertner said.

Furthermore, the customer still wants to feel some form of service during the transaction, with 26 per cent saying they want personal travel consultancy.

Explaining the result, Gertner said: “Customers don’t want to go onto an OTA website or airline website and just go and book. They want to feel like a unique customer.”

He pointed to the finding that 62 per cent of respondents want to be recognised as a returning customer while 24 per cent have booked through a personal visit to an offline travel agency in the last 12 months.

“We’re clearly not offering a personal or unique enough experience online,” Gertner commented.

Unsurprisingly, 71 per cent of travellers said they consider personal recommendations as very important, something TripAdvisor “has taken into account”, he said.

At the same time, Gertner also said responses indicated that mobile is “starting to be the next frontier”.

Thirty-nine per cent of those polled use mobile devices to plan their holiday stays, while 59 per cent want the freedom to book “wherever, whenever”.

ASIA is now the engine of LCC capacity growth across the world and accounts for a gargantuan 80 per cent of all new seats in 1H2013, revealed the latest analysis by Amadeus’ Air Traffic solution.

Out of the 35.6 million seats that were added in the first half of 2013, Asia saw 28.9 million more seats come online to total 129.3 million seats. This represents a 28.7 year-on-year increase, the biggest leap in capacity in terms of percentage and absolute numbers.

In second place is the Middle East, where LCC capacity grew 17.7 per cent to inject another two million seats to 13.5 million.

Countries that saw the largest rises in LCC capacity are Indonesia (12.3 million more seats), India (three million), Thailand (two million) and Malaysia (1.8 million). Collectively, the four countries contribute half of global LCC capacity growth in total in 1H2013.

Unsurprisingly, Jakarta saw the strongest absolute leap in LCC capacity by 2.8 million seats or 44 per cent, followed by Bangkok that received 1.2 million more seats or a 30 per cent increase. Tokyo saw the largest change in capacity growth at 178 per cent, but the small base number meant the Japanese capital only witnessed 1.1 million more seats.

Nevertheless London still tops as the city with the largest amount of LCC seat capacity in the world, with 14.8 million seats operating to and from the city.

Brazil’s Sao Paulo trails with 10.8 million seats, followed by Jakarta with 9.4 million and Kuala Lumpur, with 8.2 million.

Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur registered the strongest percentage growth with 44 and 15 per cent respectively.

Alexandre Jorre, LCC specialist for Amadeus, said: “We see a natural boom in LCC capacity across Asia, where point-to-point air travel is largely underserved. However, across the mature markets of Europe and North America capacity is constrained, which may explain why some LCCs are considering new approaches to secure future growth.”

A RECENT TripAdvisor study has found that most hoteliers are not meeting their customer’ mobile expectations even though travellers are now attached to their mobile devices more than ever.

According to the TripAdvisor TripBarometer Mobile and Social survey, 87 per cent and 88 per cent of travellers around the world and in Asia respectively use their mobile devices on the go.

Yet almost one-third of hoteliers around the world are not dishing up additional mobile content for users.

Some 39 per cent of travellers internationally want mobile-friendly sites, which are currently offered only by 37 per cent of hoteliers globally and 27 per cent in Asia. Location-specific deals and special offers for mobile users are in demand at 24 and 27 per cent respectively, but the number of hotels in Asia providing these make up only a woeful five per cent and 15 per cent.

However, TripBarometer reported that this situation is likely to improve in the coming year. While only 36 per cent of hoteliers internationally are prioritising mobile marketing this year, 53 per cent plan on expanding mobile offerings in 2014.

Asian hoteliers are the most likely bunch to ramp up mobile offerings in 2014, (66 per cent), including mobile booking functionality (30 per cent), mobile-friendly websites (26 per cent) and mobile-specific special offers (15 per cent).

Hoteliers are doing better in terms of engagement on the social media front, with 82 per cent of hotels internationally and 84 per cent in Asia interacting with current and potential guests. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular platforms. In the coming year, 55 per cent of hoteliers internationally and 58 per cent in Asia intend to invest more in social media in 2014.

Julio Bruno, global vice president of sales, TripAdvisor for Business, said: “TripBarometer findings revealed that there are opportunities for hospitality businesses to provide value at various points throughout a traveller’s journey. Businesses should engage with potential and current guests on mobile and social media to interact with them in real time through special offers and apps that are popular with travellers. Ultimately, mobile is the direct link to travellers on the go.”