YOUTH TOURISM CONFERENCE: Perspectives and Prospects Palm Garden Hotel, Putrajaya, MALAYSIA Wednesday, 3 May 2005 KEYNOTE

ADDRESS

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB Deputy Director General I, Tourism Malaysia

Distinguished Participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am indeed honoured and privileged to be present here this morning amongst so many distinguished delegates of the Youth Tourism Conference: Perspectives and Prospects. First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Tourism Malaysia (KL, Putrajaya and Selangor), the Tourism Planning Research Group, UTM and the Tourism Research Circle, USM for hosting and organising this conference, and for having graciously invited me to present a keynote paper entitled The Role and Importance of Youth Tourism in the Malaysian Tourism Industry. I would also like to thank the International Youth Hostel Federation and the Malaysian Tourist Guides Council for their contribution towards organising this important conference. Ladies and Gentlemen,

Youth tourism is not a new phenomenon given that young people have always travelled around the world with their families, friends, in groups, or on their own for centuries. However, the notion of modern youth travel originated after the Second World War, which was strongly influenced by the creation of youth movements to campaign for peaceful ideals and cultural exchanges. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), international trips taken by young travellers grew from 14.6% in 1980 to 20% in 2001, and had been projected to reach 25% by 2005. As a matter of fact, youth travel is believed to be the fastest growing travel market segment, surpassing even ecotourism and cultural tourism.

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB Despite its long history, there is no widely accepted definition of the youth travel market segment. The WTO defines the young tourism market as travellers between 16 to 25 years old, who take a trip involving at least one nights stay. However, countries such as Canada have expanded this definition to include young adults of between 26 to 30 years old. Meanwhile, the Student and Youth Travel Association of North America (SYTA) has also expanded WTOs definition of youths to include those under 16 years of age. The youth travel market segment can be divided into two categories; namely group travel and independent travel, and it is important for us expectations of both groups. to understand the characteristics, motivations and

Group travel is commonly defined as a group of six (6) or more people that are travelling together. This category can be further subdivided into school-based youth travel and nonschool-based youth group travel. School-based youth travel is driven by curriculum-related activities or co-curricular activities such as school societies or team sports. Essentially, the travel activities are generally undertaken as a group, and accompanied by teachers or other adults. In Malaysia, The Ministry of Education has been handling school-based youth travel for the past 15 years, in the form of educational tours/cultural exchange trips, mainly involving schools from Japan. Between 2001 to 2004, close to 10, 000 Japanese school children and teachers have visited Malaysia on such trips (Table 1).

Table 1: Japanese School Children Participating in Educational Tours to Malaysia Year Number of visitor 2001 1527 2002 3723 2003 2241 2004 1720 Total 9211 Source: Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2005 Ladies and Gentlemen, The homestay programme is another tourism product that is becoming more and more appealing to youth travellers. In 1997, there were only 286 houses participating officially in this programme throughout Malaysia and by 1998, the number of participants had increased to 321 houses. By 2004, the number of participants had risen to 948 and currently there are 1089 participants (Fig. 1, Fig. 2 and Table 2). Percent (%) 16.6 40.4 24.3 18.7 100.00 Increase (%) +143 - 39.8 -23.2

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB

1200 1000 N o .o f Partic ipants 800 776 600 400 286 200 0 1997 1998 2002 Year 2004 2005 948 1089

321

Fig. 1: Total Number of Homestay Participants in Malaysia, 1997 2005 Source: Ministry of Tourism Malaysia, 2005

300 Participants 250 No. of Village 212 200

277

150

100 72 50 8 0
Pe ra k

90 60 61 17 20

42 12 22 1 7 23 1 5

47

51

52

60

Pe rlis b Pu ua la n u Pi na ng La

Fig. 2: Distribution of Homestay Participants in Malaysia Source: Ministry of Tourism Malaysia, 2005

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN 3 TOURISM INDUSTRY

Jo Te ho re r ng ga nu Ke d a h M el a ka La ng ka w Ke i la nt a n Sa ra w a k Se la n N go .S r em b ila n Sa b a h Pa ha ng

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB Table 2: Distribution of Homestay Participants inMalaysia, 2005
No. 1. State Selangor Kg. Ulu Chuchuh Kg. Kanchong Darat Kg. Endah Kg. Sg. Sireh, Tg. Karang Sabah Mitabang Homestay Kg. Pukak Homestay/ Tuaran Misompuru Homestay Miso Walai Homestay, Kg. Batu Putih Sukau Homestay Kg. Bilit Homestay Kg. Kuala Ibai Kg. Melangkap Tiong/ Kota Belud Toginambur Homestay/ Kota Belud Kg. Long Parsia/ Sipitang Walai Tokou Homestay, Kg. Sinisian Papaga Homestay Kinarut (Under LKIM) Tambunan Homestay Kg. Tanjung Aru (Under LKIM) GDW Kg. Bayangan Kedah Sungai Bakap, Relau Yan Langkawi Kg. Wang Tok Rendong (WTR) Pulau Tuba Sarawak Kg. Telok Melano Kg. Telaga Air Kg. Tanah Hitam Kg. Pueh Johor Kg. Sarang Buaya Kg. Lukut Kg. Bukit Lintang Mersing Kg. Serkat Pahang Desa Murni Bangau Tanjung Megat Segama Kampung Peragap Kg. Ketam Kg. Tenggara Seberang Temerloh Kerdau Seri Semantan Bukit Fraser Tanah Rata Sungai Pasu, Raub Kg. Sibar, Kuala Lipis PPSK Rumpun Makmur, Kuala Krau Kg. Belimbing, Kuantan Total of Participants 72 17 20 20 15 212 12 8 34 19 5 9 4 5 9 15 16 8 12 10 19 26 51 28 23 60 40 20 61 19 23 5 14 42 5 5 12 5 15 277 81 18 13 4 11 1 1 14 2 2 1 11 12 15 9

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB State Felcra Sri Makmur Mukim Penyor 1, Pekan Felcra Sg. Temau PPSK Tembeling Tengah Kuala Medang 8. Terengganu Kampung Rhu 10 Kampung Baru Penarik Kampung Pasir Raja, Hulu Dungun 9. Pulau Pinang Mengkuang Titi 10. Negeri Sembilan Kg. Pelegong Kg. Lonek Homestay F`Best, Serting Hilir Bangkinang homestay Gemas Homestay 11. Melaka Kg. Seri Tanjung Kg. Pulai Kg. Alai Kg. Serkam 12. Kelantan Kg. Pantai Suri Renok Baru, Gua Musang Ulu Kursial, Tanah Merah 13. Labuan Kg. Patar Patar 1 Kg. Patar Patar 2 Kg. Sg. Keling Kg. Sg. Miri Kg. Sg. Labu Kg. Layang Layangan Kg. Batu Menikam 14. Perlis Kg. Ujong Bukit 15. Perak Pasir Salak Total Source: Ministry of Tourism Malaysia, 2005 No. Total of Participants 14 22 12 10 24 47 15 5 27 23 23 90 29

30 52 35 2 9 6 60 21 17 22 22 2 5 2 8 1 2 1 12 12 8 8 1089

The Ministry of Tourism Malaysia, Tourism Malaysia and the Malaysian Homestay Association have been instrumental in developing and promoting the homestay product. Interestingly, the homestay programme is also very popular with school-based trips, notably from Japanese schools, and at Desa Murni Homestay in Temerloh, around 95% of the visitors are Japanese youths. Despite this and the educational trips handled by the Ministry of Education, the Malaysian tourism industry has only managed to capture around 1% of the

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN 5 TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB Japanese school childrens market segment in 2004, out of the 651, 788 school children that travelled abroad in that year.

The second sub-category of group travel is the non-school-based youth group travel. These are generally organised by groups outside of the school, such as sports team, youth clubs, Scouts or Girl Guides and cultural performance troupes. Similar to that of the school-based youth group travel, most of the activities are also undertaken as a group with supervising adults acting as chaperones. The itineraries are also event-driven and are often made with the involvement of the youth participants themselves. Examples of such groups from Japan that have visited Malaysias homestays in the past are as follows:
y y y y y y y y y y y y

Japan International Cooperation Agency Japan Overseas Cooperation Association Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers Municipal Board of Education, Osaka Fukuoka Malaysia Association Nagoya Malaysia Friendship Association Akifuchu Senior High School Hiroshima Minani Oguni Wood Working Club Federation of World Youth Association, Nagasaki Federation of World Youth Association, Osaka Federation of World Youth Association, Okayama Japanese Embassy

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The second category of the youth travel market segment is independent travel. Independent travel is also sometimes referred to as independent youth travellers or backpackers. This type
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THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB of travellers either travel alone, or in small informal groups. It can also be noted that within this market segment alone, exist significant differences between various age groups of young travellers, in terms of their spending pattern and travel needs. Most independent youth travellers travel to destinations farther from home, where they stay longer. Foreign

independent youth travellers tend to stay longer compared to domestic youth travellers, because they want to explore the different cultures, increase their knowledge and experience excitement in a different environment.

From a study conducted on international backpackers by tourism researchers in University Malaya, it was found that their average daily expenditure was RM 227.06. If we were to multiply this average daily expenditure with their average duration of trip in Malaysia, which is about 19.5 days, the estimated expenditure of these international backpackers would be RM 4,427.67. On the other hand, for other tourists in Malaysia, their average length of stay per tourist is only 6.0 days with an average expenditure of RM 1,888 per tourist. This shows that the backpackers expenditure per capita is 2.3 times higher than the average of all tourists in Malaysia.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Of late, local academics have been conducting research related to youth tourism, covering aspects such as the overall profile and trends in youth tourism, satisfaction levels of youths and backpacker tourism and so forth. It should be pointed out that most of these studies were and are being funded by either the Ministry of Tourism or Tourism Malaysia. Nonetheless more research and the dissemination of knowledge on the youth tourism phenomenon is required, hence the appropriateness and timeliness of this conference.

The importance of youth tourism as a field of international interest for policymakers and researchers was cemented at the first WTO Conference of Youth Tourism held in New Delhi way back in 1991. Since then, youth associations such as the International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC) and the Federation of International Youth Travel Organisations (FIYTO) have been carrying out studies and conducting annual conferences related to youth tourism. In 2002, ISTC in collaboration with the Association of Leisure and Tourism Education (ATLAS) launched a landmark study on youth tourism, entitled Todays Youth Travellers: Tomorrows Global Nomads. The report gave insights into the main findings of a major transnational survey on independent youth and student travel, based on responses

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN 7 TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB from 2,300 young people and students from Canada, The Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden and the UK. Among their major findings were:

Majority of the respondent were students aged below 26 years with a high education level.

The main motivations were to explore other cultures (83%), followed by excitement (74%) and increasing knowledge (69%).

Long trips was seen as a once in a lifetime opportunity for many young people and students, and they were prepared to dedicate a lot of time, energy and money to ensure that their trip achieve that.

Their main sources of information used for planning their trip were the Internet (71%) and friends/family (70%).

Less experienced travellers relied more heavily on travel agents for information, while the slightly older travellers used guidebooks (37%).

The main mode of transport to the destination was air travel (82%), with rail travel at 30%.

The most popular forms of accommodation were visiting friends and relatives (41%) and backpacker hostels (32%).

The most popular activities were visiting historic sites and monuments (77%), walking and trekking (76%) and more leisurely pursuits such as sitting in cafes/restaurants (72%) and shopping (72%).

The report concluded that the youth and students travel to seek experience, and often make repeat visits. Most importantly, the study showed that youth travellers gain a thirst for more travel after they return from their trips, which increases the long-term potential of this market.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Between 2000 to 2005, tourism revenue in Malaysia had increased from RM 17 billion to RM 31 billion respectively. In 2010, tourist arrival is expected to increase to 24.6 million. We can estimate that if youth travel represents approximately 20% of global tourism, the number of
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THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB young travellers to Malaysia by 2010 will be just under 5 million (4.9 m.). This begs the question whether the tourism industry in Malaysia is well prepared to position itself and to cater for the specific needs of these young travellers.

The Visit Malaysia Year 2007 campaign should be used as an opportunity for the related government agencies, tourism industry, NGOs and other key stakeholders to plan and offer tour packages, facilities and events specifically designed for youths. In addition, it is hoped that VMY 2007 will provide the foundation for the creation of a tourism culture among youths in the country.

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN 9 TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB Fig. 3: Tourism Indicators, 2000-2010

Source: Ninth Malaysia Plan, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With the apparent and rapid changes taking place in the world today, the youth travel industry is expected to be affected by various trends over the next five years. Some of which are:

A more demanding, discerning and challenging market: Young people, educators and parents are well informed about travel options and costs. Todays youth will shop around, often using the Internet, until they are satisfied that their money will be well spent and their travel expectations will be met.

The ongoing concerns about safety and security: Youth group travel organisers are particularly sensitive to risk. The invasion of Iraq and fear of health threats such as

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THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB SARS, Avian Flu, etc. have resulted in trip cancellations in the past, including educational trips from Japan.

More people are becoming more involved in the travel decision: This is especially relevant to youth group travel as in the case of Japan, whereby the Ministry of Education (MONBUSHO) decides on the preferred destination and the partner schools in Malaysia. Therefore the tourism industry in Malaysia should understand the system of operation and distribution channels of youth travel.

Sustained economic growth: All travel and tourism traditionally increases during good economic times due to the increase in disposable income, social mobility and changing consumer trends.

Increasing influence and use of information technology: The spread of the Internet has opened up communication channels worldwide. Young travellers today are fully wired, relying on the Internet at all stages of travel. The implication of this includes opening up new markets, new promotional and packaging opportunities, and new service and product opportunities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

From the scenario above, we can see that youth travel represents a significant share of the overall tourism market. There are, however, significant barriers that must be overcome before the Malaysian tourism industry will be able to capitalise on current and future opportunities that the youth travel market presents.

The understanding of the youth travel industry is still minimal. The Malaysia tourism industry must recognise young travellers as a distinct and important market segment and understand its characteristics. The industry should be aware that young travellers are looking for authentic and educational travel experiences, the sharing of culture and a sense of adventure during their journey.

Malaysia has yet to position itself to attract the youth travel market. We must find ways to position our country to be attractive to young travellers given that they represent a lifetime of travel revenue. Ultimately, we must position Malaysia as a prime tourist destination for young travellers. In contrast, Australia, France, New THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN 11 TOURISM INDUSTRY

MR. MIRZA MOHAMMAD TAIYAB Zealand, the United Kingdom and Thailand have been known to target young travellers as a priority group and are reporting impressive results from youth-targeted promotional programmes.

The youth travel market is currently not a priority for the Malaysia tourism industry. While other lucrative market segments such as MICE are being rightfully promoted, young travellers should also be given priority as they will soon become adults, launch careers and start families. In turn, they are likely to follow the travel patterns that they established in their youths.

The Malaysian tourism industry is still not organised to unlock the potential of youth tourism. Currently, there are few tour operators providing specialised travel packages for youths and youth-specific facilities and services such as youth hostels and student discount cards. Tour operators should link up with low cost carriers especially AirAsia, KTMB, etc. to provide exciting youth tourism packages. Ultimately, there should be a youth hostel in every state in the country and tour guides should increase their product knowledge and proficiency in foreign languages.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lest we forget, youth tourism is nor solely about economic gains. In tandem with generating tourist arrivals, youth tourism is a powerful tool for the promotion of goodwill and peace among nations and communities, regional integration and cross cultural exchange. In addition, youth tourism can be used to empower youth, foster pride in the community, reduce social ills and revitalise as well as rekindle interest in our cultural heritage.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity, once again to thank the organisers of this conference for their initiative and wish you all a fruitful discussion in making youth tourism as a major target market segment. Tourism Malaysia stands ready to extend its fullest cooperation to make tourism the nucleus for socio-economic development and well being of the nation and community at large.

Thank you.

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THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH TOURISM IN THE MALAYSIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY