Tourism is currently the second highest contributor to Malaysia’s

Tourism is currently the second highest contributor to Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) after manufacturing. Despite its relatively late entrant as a ‘big time’ tourism player, the tourism industry in Malaysia has grown by leaps and bounds since the early 1990’s. This paper will, firstly, trace the development of the tourism industry in Malaysia vis-à-vis its performance, institutional framework and policy planning initiatives. Secondly, it will discuss Malaysia’s efforts, successes and failures in promoting regional cooperation in tourism. Thirdly, the role of budget airlines, development of thematic/transporter heritage trails and growth in youth tourism will be evaluated in the light of multi-destination visitation. INTRODUCTION

Malaysia is a relatively new entrant into tourism in relation to its ASEAN neighbors. Serious efforts in developing and promoting tourism began only with the establishment of the Tourist Development Corporation Malaysia (TDCM) in 1972 and it took another 15 years before a specific ministry, the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism (MOCAT) was set up in 1987. In April 2004, MOCAT was split to facilitate the establishment of a separate ministry responsible solely for matters related to tourism i.e. the Ministry of Tourism (MOT). This latest development reflects the government’s seriousness in promoting tourism as the second major income earner for the country after manufacturing.
Prior to the Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) campaign in 1990, Malaysia was frequently marketed as only an element of a wider ‘tourist circuit’, including the neighboring countries of Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia (King, 1993:107). At that time, Malaysia’s share of the Far Eastern Asia-Pacific tourism market was only in the region of 10% to 13%. The following extract from a PATA (1991 quoted in MOCAT, 1992: 1) editorial summarized Malaysia’s obscure tourist image at that time:
‘Malaysia’s greatest strength is its tourism product diversity…but like a double edged sword, Malaysia’s product diversity has