Truly Asia, Malaysia – My Next Holiday!
Malaysia, a beautiful country located in the heart of South East Asia. With little over 30 Million population, this beautiful country comprises of 13 states and 3 federal territories and is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society. Since Independence, its GDP is growing at an average of 6.5% per annum, making it the best economic records in Asia.
Malaysia’s Economy is largely dependent on Exports of natural and agricultural resources and petroleum. Tourism form the third largest source of foreign exchange and as per data from UNWTO, Malaysia is the 5 best performing market for tourism as on 2013. As per data released in 2012, Malaysia was the 10 most visited place in the world with 25.03 million international tourist arrivals in 2012. The tourism industry in Malaysia currently employs over 14% of total workforce of the country, making it the 5 largest employment generator.
The graph below shows the tourist arrival growth in last 2 years:
Two recent disasters –
1) Mysterious disappearance of #MH370 flight carrying 239 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing
2) Victim of tension between Russia & Ukraine and allegedly Shot down of #MH17 flight carrying 295 passengers from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
With these two recent disasters, people in social network and media are talking of one thing – Avoid Malaysia!
This is just a coincidence, a grim coincidence, that an airline is hit by second disaster in a gap of few months. We should look beyond these two disasters and think of about 4.2 million people who are associated with tourism industry directly or indirectly in Malaysia. Isolating Malaysia in this time of their need will not only impact their own economy but in some ways impact all those countries that do business and trade with Malaysia and also count for tourism inflow from Malaysia. We all, collectively, should look beyond what happened and spread positive message out there about the country, its natural reserves, beaches and wonderful people and urge people not to cancel their holiday in panic to this country. Malaysia is still a Truly Asia Destination and one can experience wide variety of holiday options from adventure, beach, family, religious and getaway among others.
I’ve decided, my next holiday will be #Malaysia – will you join me? Share with your network, if you agree with me, let’s spread the goodness of Malaysia here…
