Kuala Lumpur in Top 10 Most Visited City in the World

Several international media portals recently published the MasterCard Global Cities Index for the 30 most visited cities in the world in 2017, and Kuala Lumpur ranked number 8 on the list.

This is amazing news for Malaysia, which has been working hard to increase tourism over the years. Being in the top 10 is truly an achievement for Malaysia, as Mastercard’s 2017 Global Destination Cities Index ranks the 132 most visited cities around the world.

This is also done yearly, and cities or countries work hard to get listed here. Time.com, however, listed Kuala Lumpur as No.9 on the list, with 12.1 million international visitors in 2017.

However, as you can see below, CNN and other international publications list Kuala Lumpur as No.8. Anyway, being in the top 10 is better than nothing.

It is a good question to ask how it impacts the tourism industry. Will this help increase or maintain tourism numbers? It is up to the tourist. The tourism board’s mission is ultimately to heavily promote the country or city to would-be travellers.

Each country’s tourism board has its own method and objective in promoting tourism. As for Malaysia, we have been aggressively promoting tourism for many years and have experienced hard times and controversial times, like the MH370 fiasco, which saw a massive drop in visitors from China and many other countries.

In recent years, Malaysia’s tourism budgets have been drastically cut, but the main aim of luring local, regional, and East Asian tourists has been high on the agenda.

The number one tourist is still coming from China and is still being pursued by many local tourism boards. You can also find the statistics of tourist arrivals to Malaysia from 2005 to 2016, which also shares which countries were visited the most.

OverTourism in Malaysia? 

With the number of Chinese tourists coming to Malaysia, some popular areas are facing overtourism, which the local industry players are still not discussing. Eventually, it can become a problem, but very little is done to avoid this.

One of the areas in Malaysia affected by overtourism is Mabul Island, on the east coast of Sabah, Borneo. Steps need to be implemented, as many other international tourists are now avoiding places with overtourism due to various factors.

But if no one takes this issue more seriously, it will eventually become a problem like some other countries.

Malaysia is still considered not fully developed overall. Well, if you look outside of the major cities, there is so much more to do in terms of infrastructure, proper tourist guides, and other related matters. Most of these places depend strongly on tourism, and anything goes in most cases.

OverTourism is still an unknown word in Malaysia, simply because of tourism dollars, industry players want to fill planes, buses and hotels. A common practice in Asian businesses is to look at or consider the long-term effects.

Conclusion

As I write about OverTourism in Malaysia, I am purely highlighting this potential issue that could happen or is happening in certain areas. I truly hope the local tourism boards and industry players take note of this, as we would still like to be listed among the most visited cities in the world in the future.