JOM, LET’S HOLIDAY IN MALAYSIA!
BY LAURA LEE
Travelling locally within Malaysia, be it for leisure holidays, relaxation or visiting relatives and friends has been on the rise this year, a positive sign of the recovery of the tourism industry which had suffered from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Latest data released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) showed the number of domestic tourists rose 20% in the second quarter of 2023 (2Q23) while domestic tourism expenditure was up 23.9% year-on-year, registering RM21.9 billion in terms of accommodation and shopping.
Tourism Malaysia’s Jerayawara Jom Cuti-Cuti Malaysia (JCCM) 2023, organised by its Domestic and Events Division as a spin-off from its highly successful and popular Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign, garnered sales worth RM6.02 million from the 28,781 domestic tourism packages sold.
Its roadshow programme, held from February to November, took place in eight shopping malls in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Melaka and Penang over a three-day duration from Friday to Sunday at each venue. These venues offer diverse demographic and psychographic domestic tourism market.
According to DOSM’s Domestic Tourism Survey 2022, Selangor was the most visited state in 2022 which attracted 22 million domestic visitors, appears to be a popular choice for the JCCM roadshow with three out of the eight mall venues located here.
The JCCM programme, which kick-started at The Curve, Mutiara Damansara from 24-26 February, also witnessed the launch of special staycation packages from Mondays to Thursdays in Sabah and Labuan. It ended successfully in Melaka from 10-12 November.
Top Five Malls With Highest Sales
Leading the pack among the top five malls in terms of the highest sales achieved was 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya with RM1.27 million roped in from its JCCM 2023 programme held from 9-11 June where over 100 value for money packages with discounts of between 15 to 50% were offered.
This was followed by AEON Mall Kinta City in Ipoh where JCCM was held from 14-16 July with RM844,794 worth of packages sold. Sunway Pyramid in Subang Jaya, which had the JCCM from 27-29 October, registered sales worth RM744,326 while AEON Mall Bandaraya Melaka, the last stop for this year’s programme, received RM684,920 worth of sales from 10-12 November.
AEON Mall Shah Alam, also in Selangor, was ranked fifth with RM671,834 packages sold. Its JCCM activities were held from 25-27 August.
Top Five Packages
Islands and beaches as well as Sabah continue to be the favourite among domestic tourists while a new cruise product by Costa Serena plying domestic destinations is also gaining popularity. Among the top five packages bought by visitors to JCCM consumer travel fair this year were short holiday staycations of three days/two nights in Langkawi, Cherating in Pahang and Mimpi Perhentian Island Resort in Terengganu.
Langkawi, which received 2.2 million tourists or almost 70% of its targeted 3.2 million between Jan and October this year, is expecting a super peak season in December, mirroring trends of previous years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fullboard four-day/three-night holiday package from Sabah’s capital city of Kota Kinabalu to Kundasang was also a sellout at JCCM 2023. Known as the New Zealand of Borneo because of its mountainous geographical terrain, this quaint town has been gaining lots of interests from both local and foreign tourists because of its attractions such as the Kundasang War Memorial. Kundasang is also referred to as the Scotland of Borneo due to its high elevation and close proximity to the Mount Kinabalu National Park.
Also making it to the top five domestic tourism packages list was the four days/three nights Costa Serena Cruise plying Port Klang-Penang-Port Klang. This new cruise package is part of the pilot charter service by Hwajing Travel and Tours done in partnership with Costa Cruises, which the Transport Ministry is keen to support international cruise liners that select Port Klang or Penang, as their home ports.
JCCM’s Goals
JCCM’s primary objectives are, among other things, to create more awareness about the country’s diverse tourism products and services besides boosting safe domestic travel and unveiling the many hidden gems, new and off- beaten local destinations to the public.
The JCCM programme also aims to encourage domestic travellers to plan their holidays early in order to take advantage of the savings by booking early to secure the attractive bargains and deals offered by its participating exhibitors.
The local tourism industry players including hoteliers, tour agencies as well as small to medium-scale enterprises, have been carefully selected by Tourism Malaysia’s to create exclusive domestic travel packages and come out with special deals for visitors to its consumer travel fair.
Organising Jom Cuti-Cuti Malaysia Roadshow gives the opportunity for Tourism Malaysia to learn about the domestic market travel behaviour post-COVID-19. For example, the visitors to JCCM in Seberang Perai, Penang are keen towards travel packages in the city such as Kuala Lumpur and Selangor while the visitors to JCCM in Selangor favour packages such as islands and beaches as well as glamping. People are also more concerned about safety and cleanliness.
Activities-Oriented JCCM Programme
Besides offering domestic travel packages, a host of activities are organised as part of JCCM 2023. They range from cultural performances to engaging online tourism quizzes, cooking demonstrations, product presentations, lucky draws as well as sessions to meet various influencers and artists.
The cooking demonstrations by the Dato Chef Ismail Ahmad, owner of Restaurant Rebung, was a huge draw at The Curve, the first pit-stop of JCCM. The award-winning celebrity chef was also Tourism Malaysia’s ambassador for gastronomy. The teh tarik and roti canai demonstrations organised at different malls were also attractions for the visitors to JCCM 2023.
The four states, which are having their Visit Melaka, Perak, Kelantan Year 2024 and Visit Perlis Year 2024-2025 respectively, also promoted their campaigns through videos, flyers, quizzes and special holiday packages at JCCM.
The year 2025 is also Visit Year for Negeri Sembilan and Kedah while Johor is having its Visit Year in 2026, the same time as Visit Malaysia Year (VMY). The targets set for the VMY 2026 are 26.1 million foreign tourist arrivals with estimated expenditure at RM97.6 billion.
At the JCCM held at AEON Mall Nilai and 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Tourism Malaysia worked together with Tourism Melaka’s mobile Tourism Information Counter to promote the historic state’s tourism offerings in the run- up to Visit Melaka Year’s launch which is kicking off on 25 December.
Estimating over 50,000 visitors to its JCCM programme held at the eight malls throughout this year, Tourism Malaysia Director General Dato’ Dr Ammar Abd Ghapar said, “We will improvise the venues for JCCM 2024 based on the feedback received and try to push for other venues to benefit all parties concerned.”
With the surge in airfares globally and the rising costs associated with overseas travel, Malaysians are increasingly opting for domestic travel and the attractive packages offered via JCCM and other travel fairs by Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents and Malaysian Chinese Tourism Association, whom Tourism Malaysia also works closely with and offers them grant to hold such fairs. He is a strong advocate of boosting the visibility of our local tourism products via public-private partnership.
With RM350 million earmarked promotion and tourism activities for next year, Dato’ Dr Ammar is keenly looking at how to optimise them for domestic tourism, which has been a critical driver in the revival Malaysia’s travel and hospitality industry after the pandemic, bringing spin- off economic benefits to its players and creating job opportunities.