My friend and I will be in Bali next week. This will be our first trip to the Indonesian island this year but the seventh in the span of three years. When we told friends that we are heading out to the island yet again, they were surprised. What else is there in Bali that we have not seen? We have visited almost all the tourist attractions on the island, but this has not stopped us from making more trips there.
Our decision to go again is not influenced by the republic’s “Wonderful Indonesia” tourism campaign. I must say that the Indonesian tourism authorities have been aggressive here. I have seen their huge booth at the Food Truck Festival in Putrajaya last February and have also watched and listened to their commercials on the Express Rail Link (ERL) whenever I go to the administrative capital.
And, I believe their investment is paying off. In the first two months of the year alone, 726,625 tourists were in Bali, with Malaysians being the seventh largest group after tourists from China, Australia, Japan, Britain, South Korea and India. The figure showed a 13.4 per cent increase over the year-ago period.
Last year, Bali saw a 6.24 per cent increase in tourist arrivals at slightly more than 4 million compared with 3.766 million in 2014. Malaysians made up the fourth largest group after the Australians, Chinese and Japanese.
Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income in Bali. It did suffer significantly as a result of terrorist bombings in 2005 and 2006, but the tourism industry has since recovered from these events.
In comparison, Malaysia saw a drop of two million tourists last year compared with 2014. In a written parliamentary reply recently, Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said a total of 25.7 million tourists came to Malaysia last year, down from 27.4 million in 2014. Tourism revenue also dropped from RM72 billion in 2014 to RM69.1 billion last year. Tourist arrivals had been steadily increasing from 2011 until 2014 before the 2015 drop.
It may not be a drastic drop in arrivals — attributed to, among others, the implementation of the 6 per cent Goods and Services Tax and the depressed world and local economies — but it must be mitigated before it dips any further. The Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) of the Prime Minister’s Department said the tourism industry is a significant contributor to Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product, maintaining an average annual growth rate of 12 per cent since 2004.
What about another Visit Malaysia year campaign to boost the industry? Past campaigns had proven to be successful.
The first VMY campaign was in 1990, with 7.4 million tourist arrivals compared with 4.8 million in 1989. The orang utan named Wira was the official mascot. The second VMY campaign in 1994 saw arrivals at 10.22 million tourists while the third in 2007, launched in conjunction with Malaysia’s 50th Independence, saw 20.97 million tourist arrivals with RM46.1 billion in tourism receipts recorded that year. The fourth VMY campaign was in 2014, with the Proboscis Monkey as the mascot, saw arrivals continuing to rise.
There are some people who think that the authorities may also need to re-look at the current “Malaysia Truly Asia” advertising slogan.
In one of my earlier trips to Bali, I asked an American tourist if he would stay in Malaysia to see Asia. He told me if he was a first timer to the region, he would not stick to one country. With airfares being slashed to what it is now, irrespective whether it is on the national carrier or a budget airline, he would visit the other countries, too. But, if he had already visited the region, he would make a return trip to the country of his liking.
Like my friend and I, the American and some of his friends were repeat visitors to Bali. Despite the past bombings and terrorist threats against Westerners, they said they have no qualms about returning to the island. One just has to be smart and avoid places which can be a target of attacks, he said.
We have been using the “Malaysia, Truly Asia” tagline for close to 10 years now. Even the biggest brands with famous taglines change their advertising slogan every few years. Coke was one. People still remember it as “It’s the Real Thing” although they have had many, many taglines over the years such as “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” and “Coke adds life”. Of course, these slogans are backed by multi-million dollar campaigns, especially since they are aimed at gaining worldwide acceptance.
Some Asean countries have adopted and maintained a one-word adjective for their taglines such as “Wonderful Indonesia”, “Amazing Thailand”, “Mystical Myanmar” and “Your Singapore” to describe the respective countries.
Incidentally, the country’s tourism tagline had been “Fascinating Malaysia” before it was changed to “Malaysia, Truly Asia” for a new campaign.
I find it embarrassing that while we sell ourselves as being “truly Asia”, we cannot tell our foreign friends where they can find it. Foreign friends have actually asked where they can watch Mak Yong or Ulek Mayang performances like that of the daily shows of Kecak and Barongan in Bali. Even if you go to Kelantan and Terengganu, you can no longer find these being performed publicly.
What will we be if the arts and culture, which is part of our birthright and so-called tourism selling points, are gone?
Fauziah Ismail is a United Nations’ Journalism fellow and Wolfson College Cambridge press fellow. She has 30 years of experience as a journalist, half of which with the ‘Business Times’