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hpeng@motour.gov.my"/> Saturday November 12, 2011
True blue tourism ambitions
AT YOUR SERVICE
By DATUK DR ONG HONG PENG
Secretary-General, Ministry of Tourism
hpeng@motour.gov.my
The number of tourists to Malaysia has been on the rise. To keep it that way, efforts have to be made to find
new niches – blue ocean opportunities – and to add value to what we already have.
MALAYSIA is the ninth most visited country in the world. Our tourism industry reaps RM1bil in tourist receipts
every week and creates 1.2 million jobs.
As one of the New Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) to propel Malaysia into a high income nation, ambitious targets
have been set for the tourism sector. Towards this end, the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan (MTTP) was
formulated to achieve 36 million tourist arrivals and RM3bil receipts in a week by 2020.
The challenge is to increase tourist arrivals by 1.5 times and receipts by three times in one decade.
The answer lies in our ability to tap blue ocean opportunities, thus creating uncontested market spaces that make
competition irrelevant. It is about growing demand for travel through value innovation.
Tourists have been drawn towards the blue ocean of Sipadan Island. In the eyes of Jacques Cousteau, a film maker,
Sipadan Island is “an untouched piece of art”.
This jewel of Malaysia was under threat in the early 2000s, due to the deterioration of quality of marine life and the
safety concerns of tourists.
Realising that Sipadan will soon be a “red ocean”, the Government took swift action. All on-site dive and resort
operators of Pulau Sipadan were ordered to move their structures out of the island.
To ensure the lustre of Sipadan is preserved, sustainable management practices were employed. In order to build
strategy into execution, Sabah Parks collaborated with the security forces to enforce the quota of 120 divers a day
and to raise the level of security of tourists.
The application of the Eliminate, Reduce, Raise and Create (ERRC) Framework ensured that Sipadan remains a blue
ocean.
By eliminating resorts in the island and creating a system of quota for divers, it reduced pollution and raised the
diversity of marine life. Today, Sipadan is a top 10 dive site in the world.
The Night Floral-Boat Parade was created through the Blue Ocean Strategy. It was created as an alternative to the
conventional floral street parade, which was confronted with rising costs and stagnating visitor numbers.
The rebranded Night Floral Parade raised the offerings and lowered costs by eliminating the use of fresh flowers and
air-conditioned tents required for the static display of floral floats.
“Magic of the Night” was the compelling tagline crafted for the inaugural 1Malaysia International Tourism Night
Floral Parade 2011. Set in the spectacular Putrajaya Lake with the beautifully-designed bridges from July 19 to 27, it
was certainly a sight to behold.
Tourists were treated to nine nights of 13 boats decorated with artistic array of lights showcasing tourism themes
accompanied by music and dance performances. It was synchronised with laser lights multimedia display culminating
with fireworks.
The public-private partnership was also pivotal in creating value through differentiation and lower costs. The private
sector not only injected funds to defray the overall costs, but more importantly, the partnership sparked creativity in
showcasing the signature tourism products offered by AirAsia, i-City, Resorts World Genting and YTL Hotels.
The participation from Brunei, the various states, Putrajaya Holdings and Tourism Malaysia added variety and served
to promote the tourism landmarks of Brunei and Malaysia.
The collaboration between the Ministry of Tourism and Putrajaya Holdings to organise the Night Floral Parade in
conjunction with Floria 2011, harnessed the complementarities.
Floria is Malaysia’s premier outdoor garden and flower showcase. The synergy of Night Floral Parade and Floria
offered a tremendous leap in value innovation, thus creating a tourism blue ocean. The outcome was a significant
increase in visitors from 600,000 in 2010 to a record of one million in 2011.
The hosting of the inaugural CIMB Asia Pacific Classic in October 2010, is another blue ocean for tourism. Being the
first fully sanctioned annual PGA Tour event in South-East Asia, it has created new market space. The PGA brand is
associated with world-class golf events. It offers value for money and raises spectator experience for both golf fans
and tourists around the region.
The facilitation services provided though the close collaboration with agencies such as Immigration Department,
Customs Department and the Police reduced the hassle for players and ensured the smooth running of the event. This
event eliminated the half-way cut, thus encouraging a strong field of players.
It enabled them to play the full four rounds of golf and sustain the interest and support of fans.
Creative tour packages were developed for the event by industry players in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia. It
also provided the avenue to promote Malaysia and our golf courses to the world. In terms of economic impact, the
tourist revenue and media value generated for the event in 2010 are estimated at RM22.8mil and RM138.5mil
respectively.
The tourist revenue is expected to increase by 20% in the 2011 event. This PGA-sanctioned golf tour event, played in
the green fairways of the Mines Resort has unearthed a blue ocean in golf tourism.
Golf tourism is one of the 12 Entry Point Projects (EPPs) under the Tourism NKEA.
In this regard, the initiatives undertaken include adding value to golf tournaments such as the LPGA Golf
Tournament, CIMB Asia Pacific Classic and Iskandar Johor Golf aimed at positioning Malaysia as a premier golf
tourism destination.
Moving forward, we need to harness the blue ocean opportunities created by the EPPs based on the themes of
affordable luxury, family fun, nature adventure, business tourism, international events, spa and sports. The on-going
search for blue oceans is vital to realise the aspirations of the MTTP and the tourism industry.
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