KUCHING: Malaysia can learn from the phenomenon of “Hallyu’ or Korean Wave to boost the country’s tourism industry, said caretaker Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
She said South Korea had started promoting Hallyu through its popular dramas, movies and pop music over the past 20 years.
“This approach has proved successful as South Korea is now famous around the world, thus attracting tourists to visit the East Asian country.
“Even filming locations for South Korean dramas or movies are promoted by them. We in Malaysia also have some famous filming locations, but they are not promoted as much.
“We, in the ministry, are willing to help for promotional purposes, but the local people should also take advantage of this opportunity,” she said at the Youth in Tourism 2022 town hall session, here, yesterday.
She also urged tourism players to not leave the industry as there were still many untapped potentials which could give Malaysia a competitive advantage compared to other countries.
Nancy called on industry players to work together and be innovative in highlighting new and more dynamic ideas, in line with the current needs and wants to attract more international tourists to Malaysia.
“From the year 2009 to 2012, Malaysia was placed at ninth position in the Top 10 Highest Tourist Arrivals in the World list.
“However, the travel industry is very competitive and all other countries have studied our strategies and ways of promoting the country and our position is now down to the 22nd position as of late.
“However, Malaysia feels that ‘mass tourism’ is not the way to go and because of that, we have started moving the industry to ‘high-yield’ tourism and sustainability,” she said.
Nancy also called for all industry players to not work in silos and instead collaborate with relevant parties to boost the tourism industry.
Citing an example where in the past, a woven bag from Betong could only give a return of about RM20 to the craftmaker due to limited outreach.
“With cooperation from Sarawak Craft community platforms such as Sarawak Crafts, Tanoti, Penan Women and many others, now one bag could give a return of about RM300 to the craftmaker. Now weavers can make at least RM3,000 a month,” she said.
Meanwhile, she also urged tourism players to be engaged in creative tourism, such as storytelling or content creating as it provides tourists with opportunities and activities to learn one’s culture through immersive experience.
Sarawak Cultural Village, she said is one of the examples where tourists could immerse themselves in the cultural experience and should not be left behind without its potential being exploited.
“This (Sarawak Cultural Village) needs more activities that can be implemented which involve the younger generation who are tech-savvy and can create good online content,” she stressed.
She added that Malaysia as a whole has lots to offer in terms of places of attractions and tourists destinations as compared to countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“Our beaches and diving spots are beautiful. In Sabah, Scuba Junkie has won the first place in Top Global Diving Award by Dive Magazine’s Annual Travel Awards, beating over 1,000 other destinations.
“Our Mulu National Park, which is 60 million years old, has an incomparable beauty of natural flora and fauna.
“Malaysian gastronomy is more diverse too because each state has its own food,” she emphasised.
With technology now increasingly and rapidly changing, Nancy stressed the need to learn more on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), algorithms on social media to get the best outreach.
“We need to viral Sarawak and Malaysia with positive things for the whole world to know,” she said.
