Japanese Journal of Human Geography 62 ― 6（2010）

The State of Tourism Research in Malaysia

BADARUDDIN Mohamed
Universiti Sains Malaysia

Abstract
Tourism is becoming one of the most important sectors of the Malaysian economy. Malaysia
has been very successful in attracting a large number of international tourists through aggressive
promotional efforts worldwide. The boom for Malaysian tourism started in the early 1990s, after
the success of the two Visit Malaysia Year campaigns in 1990 and 1994. Despite the economic
downturns and the H1N1 scare, Malaysia attracted 23 . 65 million international tourists in 2009.
While a great deal of attention has been paid to building up tourist infrastructure, the
development of new products, and promotion, less attention has been given to research in
tourism. This may be because tourism has mainly been a government ― led sector and because
some top ― down decisions are politically influenced and are not necessarily economically sound.
In this paper, past and present trends of tourism research activities in Malaysia have been
analyzed. The state of tourism research, especially among institutions of higher learning, has
been explored in this paper. Directions for future research as well as gaps in research to be
explored by future researchers have been identified in this paper.

Keywords : research, Malaysia, trend, sustainability

I Introduction

Tourism has been recognized as the second most important sector in the Malaysian economy.
The importance of this sector is evident in the fact that it is managed by a single sector ministry,
the Ministry of Tourism. Malaysia has been very successful in attracting a large number of
international tourists through its aggressive promotional efforts worldwide. The country enjoyed
its first boom in the growth of international arrivals after the success of its first Visit Malaysia
Year（VMY）in 1990. This was followed by the second VMY in 1994. Despite the global
economic downturns and the H1N1scare, Malaysia managed to attract 23 . 65 million
international tourists in 2009, contributing over RM40 billion to the national economy. Although
the country has been successful in its international promotion, the level of product development
and tourism research activities is lower than that of its neighboring ASEAN nations, especially
Singapore and Thailand.
Tourism is a relatively new sector in Malaysia ; due to its infancy, the country lacks capable
academics specializing in tourism, resulting in an insufficient level of research activities in
tourism. There is also a huge gap in areas that needs to be bridged. The number of academics
teaching tourism and hospitality（including those in polytechnics）at all levels is estimated to be
only around 500. As in other new economies, the Malaysian government takes the initiative not
only in planning the direction of tourism development but also in developing areas and new
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products. Many big tourism projects are top ― down in nature. The government has also taken the
lead in collating data to guide tourism development. Most the time, however, these studies have
been geared toward attracting more visitors. The fast development of tourism and its ad hoc
nature makes most research irrelevant. Although tourism is said to add significant income to the
national coffers, the real distribution of this supposed income and its impact on society are yet
to be documented. Studies on the impacts of tourism are very rarely commissioned by the
Government.
According to Din（Yamashita et al. 1997）, there has been no serious debate on the impacts of
tourism by either academics or practitioners in Malaysia because there have been no major
corrosive effects of tourism on local culture and society. This could explain why the issues and
concepts of sustainable tourism and carrying capacity, despite their importance, are never
seriously considered when implementing tourism development. The social impact of tourism
projects has virtually been overlooked, perhaps because it is so subtle and is not immediately
evident（Badaruddin 2006）. Research on social impact is centered mostly on interactions between
hosts and guests. Differences in the behavior of vacationing tourists and of hosts who are going
about their everyday lives can result in unpleasant encounters.
While a great deal of attention had been paid to building tourist infrastructure, developing new
products, and expanding promotional activities, less attention has been given to tourism
research. The number and the amount of research grants for social research（which includes
tourism）are limited.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation（MOSTI）allocated a fund for research, in
the 9th and 10th Malaysia Plans, known as the Science Fund. This fund focuses on pure sciences
such as chemistry, biology, and physics, which enjoy priority in terms of allocation. Besides
MOSTI, the Ministry of Higher Education（MOHE）offers a Fundamental Research Grant
Scheme（FRGS）that is dedicated to “‘fundamental’ research.” To spur research activities, in
2007, the MOHE accorded four universities the status of “Research University（RU）” in order to
further stimulate active research. These universities are Universiti Sains Malaysia（USM）,
National University of Malaysia（UKM）, Universiti Malaya（UM）, and Universiti Putra Malaysia
（UPM）. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia（UTM）was also granted the Research University status
in 2010.
Special research grants（which include tourism under the social science umbrella）have been
allocated and have been instrumental in encouraging research in Malaysian universities. The
research achievements of these RUs are expected to exceed that of other non ― RU universities.
Although research is gaining momentum, there is still a huge gap in research needs and the
research themes studied by RUs. Many researchers are still working in silo. On the other hand,
most institutions and people are unaware of the grant for research purposes from the Ministry
of Tourism. The Ministry appears selective and lacking in direction in terms of leading research
and allocating research grants. This is probably because tourism is mainly a government ― led
sector and because top ― down decisions that are made may be politically influenced and not
necessarily economically sound.
Past and ongoing tourism research activities in Malaysia have been analyzed in this paper. This
study explores the state of tourism research, especially among institutions of higher learning. It
also recommends directions and identifies gaps for future research.

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II Tourism Research Activities among Non ― academic Research Organizations

Despite its infancy, tourism research in Malaysia is growing fast. Although the majority of
research has been conducted by universities, there have been many useful（but not publicly
reported）studies conducted by other organizations. These studies are mostly focused, top ―
down, and for the internal consumption of the specific institutions. The results of this research
are not always shared or publicized, which may result in the duplication of research.
Tourism research activities in Malaysia still are ad hoc and sporadic in nature and are not well
coordinated. As mentioned earlier, the bulk of the country’s research grants are controlled by
MOSTI, which coordinates research allocation and monitoring. At the same time, other
ministries（including the Ministry of Tourism）have also been given a proportionate allocation
that includes a limited percentage for research purposes. MOTOUR research activities are
conducted by its Research Unit, which supplies data on travel trends that is published
periodically and made available to the public. This unit publishes reports such as the Malaysia
Key Performance Indicators, Malaysia Profile of Tourist by Selected Markets, and the Annual
Report of the Malaysia Tourism Promotional Board. Data collected by this unit is used by
Malaysia’s state level tourism action councils or committees. Most of the time, the data is general
and requires additional input or analysis to make it useful. While additional specific research or
data may be collected at the state level, the data is most often not made public. There are other
government departments and institutions besides Tourism Malaysia that carry out specified,
directed research for specific consumption. Examples of these institutions are the Malaysian
Institute of Economic Research（MIER）, which also conducts Tourism Market Surveys for the
annual economic report, and the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, or FRIM, which makes
research grants for green and forest tourism.
There are also state level non ― profit, non ― governmental groups such as the World Wildlife
Federation（WWF）that carry out research that includes tourism research. SERI（or Socio ―
Economic and Environmental Research Institute）in Penang has been active in conducting
research to assist in strategic planning for Malaysia. SERI also conducts research on heritage
issues, especially pertaining to Georgetown’s UNESCO World Heritage status and the trends of
tourist arrivals in the state. SERI also analyzes the performance of the tourism industry in
Penang and emerging issues such as Medical and Health tourism, Malaysia My Second Home
（MM2H）, and specific markets such as elderly tourists. The rest of the research on tourism is
mainly conducted by the private sector, international research bodies, and consultants. This
research is more action ― oriented and applied ― research in nature ; it is usually conducted to
satisfy the development approval requirements for projects. These research studies are normally
non ― academic in content and methodology.

III Research among Academic Institutions

Most of the research conducted by universities is strongly linked to the academic background
of the university and also correlates to the general strength of universities. Among active
research groups are the Tourism Research Cluster（formerly Circle）of USM, the Tourism
Planning Research Group（TPRG）of UTM, the Tourism and Hospitality Research and
Consultation Expert Group（THRCEG）, and the Nature Tourism and Hospitality Research Niche
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from the School of Business and Economics（Universiti Malaysia Sabah）, to name a few. To
note, Malaysia has yet to establish a dedicated institute for tourism research despite the presence
of so many potential research groups in the country.
Figure 1 provides a graphical explanation of tourism, focusing on selected universities in
1
Malaysia. These universities include USM（as the first APEX university and one of the four
research ― intensive universities in the country）, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia（UTM）, Universiti
Utara Malaysia（UUM）, Universiti Institute Teknologi Mara（UITM） （one of the oldest
hospitality schools in Asia）, and others that are known to be actively engaged in tourism（ ― and

hospitality ― ）related research. The research focus is distributed over several spectrums, from
hardware（research on physical development）to software（i. e., hospitality ― related research）on
one spectrum and along the lines of planning, management, and development on another.
Research interest among postgraduate students is also increasing. For example, there are more
than 50 postgraduate students today pursuing studies on tourism and tourism ― related issues at
the various schools across USM. There are many more students in research ― based programs
offered by other institutions of higher learning, including private institutions. To become full ―
fledged universities, these private institutions now need to engage in research activities.

IV Trends in Malaysian Tourism Research

The second part of this paper reports on the trends of Malaysian tourism research in the
proceedings of six conferences that were held in the country. According to Ballantyne, Packer,
and Axelsen（2009）, tracking these changes is a way to develop research in the field and identify

Planning

UPM
UTM USM
UITM

Hardware Software
UMS UUM
Management

Taylors

Development
Figure 1. Tourism research dimensions of selected Malaysian institutions of higher learning

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 The State of Tourism Research in Malaysia（BADARUDDIN） 523

areas that require more attention. The proceedings of six major tourism conferences that were
held from 2003 to 2007 were analyzed. These conferences were the 2nd Conference for Tourism
Educators Association of Malaysia, the International Conference on Tourism Development, the
3rd ASIA ― Pacific CHRIE Conference, the Youth Tourism Conference, the 4th National Tourism
Educators Conference and 3rd Annual General Meeting, and the 5th Tourism Educators’
Conference on Tourism and Hospitality. The proceedings of these six conferences（185 articles）
have been categorized under 15 topic areas, which were adapted from Ballantyne, Packer, and
Axelsen（2009）.

V Academic Tourism research in Malaysia

The analysis in this section uses a simple classification method to refer to the keywords and the
titles of the paper. Abstracts have been used for further confirmation in the case of unclear titles
or keywords. Table 1 presents the simple results of the analysis of the 185 papers that were
presented at the aforementioned conferences. As many of the papers were presented by
academics, the majority（21 . 1%）of these papers are on education, training, and human
resources. The next area that was most focused on was alternative tourism or “new tourism,”
which accounts for 18 . 9% of papers presented and covers issues on sustainable tourism, nature,
rural, ecotourism, etc. The service industry and hospitality research accounts for 12 . 4% of the
sample despite the fact that a large percentage（estimated to be over 50%）of academics in the
country specialize in this area. Most of these academics, however, are from UITM, which was
originally a “teaching” institute but which has just begun foraying into research. This analysis
also indicted that there is a lack of interest in post ― modern tourism, community development,
“Meeting, Incentive, Conference, Exhibition”（MICE）, and Health Tourism.

Table 1. Tourism research areas of Malaysian academics

RESEARCH AREAS NO. %

1. Education, training and human resources 39 21 . 1%

2. Alternative tourism（sustainable tourism, heritage, rural, ecotourism etc） 35 18 . 9%

3. Service Industry & Hospitality 23 12 . 4%

4. Information Technology 18 9 . 7%

5. Destination, resort Planning and Development 17 9 . 2%

6. Tourist / customer / visitors studies 12 6 . 5%

7. Product Development 9 4 . 9%

8. Impacts of Tourism Development 8 4 . 3%

9. Accommodation Sector 8 4 . 3%

10. Health Tourism and Other related topics 4 2 . 2%

11. Transportation 3 1 . 6%

12. Community Development 2 1 . 1%

13. The Businesses of Tourism 2 1 . 1%

14. Marketing 2 1 . 1%

15. Post Modern Tourism 2 1 . 1%

16. Meeting, Incentive, Conference, Exhibition（MICE） 1 0 . 5%

Total 185 100 . 0%

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524 Japanese Journal of Human Geography 62 ― 6（2010）

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

General Legal International Private Sectors

Framework & Local Community
（Conceptual） （Stakeholders）
Governance 6（2005-2009）
Local

7（2007-2010） Planning, Development Impacts Carrying

Approach/ Trends Participation Gender Capacity
Strategy Development &
3（nd-2006） Management 3（2009-2010） 8（2000-2008）
4（1997-2008）
14（1999-2009） Both Entrepreneurship Social
7（1998-2010）
Dev. of New 16（2003-2010） 4（2004-2008）
Planning, Products
Service/ Economic
Development Hospitality
& 2（2006-2007）
Issues, Chanenges
Management 4（2007-2010） & Potentials
Promotion/ Physical
15（1982-2010） Education 1（nd）
Issues & Chalenges
4（nd, 2007） Environmental
Supply/ 1（nd）
Demand Side 1（2000）
6（2002-2009）
Strategy LEGEND
4（2007-2009）
Issues, Many（11-50）
Chanenges &
Potentials Tourist A few（<10）
（Trends/
6（2003-2009） Psychographic）
Note: Number denotes number of research and
publication

Figure 2. Sustainable tourism research in Malaysia

Source : Tourism Research Circle（2010）

Additional analysis has been carried out by the Tourism Research Circle on（1）research since
1982 by Malaysian researchers on sustainable tourism issues and（2）the output of this research
（Figure 2）
. The analysis looks at research grants, seminars, and journal papers on sustainability
issues in journals such as Tourism Management and Team Journal of Tourism Research. This
brief scan reflects a huge gap in sustainability studies, especially those related to local
community, private stakeholders, legal framework, and governance matters. The analysis found
that most research on sustainable tourism focused on planning, supply and demand, and the
challenges and potential of sustainable tourism（or concepts related to these issues）.

VI Tourism Research Gap

An important issue is that the number of studies commissioned or conducted by the private
sector or NGOs is very limited. A lack of understanding of the value and nature of academic
research has resulted in industries not being interested in supporting research（especially social
research）. Other hindrances are the lack of time and funding. Most of the data used in physical
planning projects（especially ad hoc projects）tends to be estimates, secondary in nature, or
speculative.
Due to the wide gap between the academic world and the industry, the Malaysian research
society has failed to fulfill the needs of or lead the tourism industry. The industry, however, has
failed to either recognize the importance of research or allocate research grants to support
tourism research. The tourism industry is highly dependent on the government to provide grant
money. This gap between the academics and the industry has resulted in much potential
research becoming irrelevant to the industry and ending up being shelved in institutional
archives.
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 The State of Tourism Research in Malaysia（BADARUDDIN） 525

VII Conclusion and Recommendations

This exploratory analysis on tourism ― related activities in Malaysia had shed light on the
growing interest in tourism research. The acknowledgement and support of the Federal
Government has placed the research agenda at the forefront and the research society can expect
this continued support in the near future. However, a large proportion of the grant allocation is
directed towards pure sciences, which are believed to create more tangible results than social
sciences. This brief overview also identifies the need for more coordination in the sharing of
research outcomes among relevant institutions to avoid the unnecessary duplication of research.
The analysis also recognizes that the themes of tourism research are limited. Most of the
research is academic in nature and lacks industry relevance. On the other hand, the tourism
research conducted by governmental organizations（non ― academics）, NGOs, and industries are
top ― down and sometimes politically motivated. This study explored the general research
activities scenario and revealed potential areas for further research. Studies on domestic tourism
issues and international trends were found to be low in number. There is also a growing need for
basic or fundamental research in tourism.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge the kind support of Mr. Jafar Abre, Miss Masitah
Sabudin, and Ms. Shida Irwana Omar, Tourism Research Circle of Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Notes
1. APEX stands for Accelerated Programme for Excellence, for which Universiti Sains Malaysia（USM）has been cho-
sen as the first university. As an Apex university, USM is expected to eventually join the ranks of world ― class uni-
versities. This program was initiated by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education towards the end of 2008. It
promises much autonomy in areas such as finance, university management, student intake, and fees.

References
Badaruddin, M.（2006）The impact of tourism on the social environment of islands in Malaysia. Revue Tourisme 14 :
33 ― 42.
Ballantyne, R., J. Packer, and M. Axelsen.（2009）Trends in tourism research. Annals of Tourism Research 36 : 149 ― 152.
Yamashita, S., K. Din, and J. S. Eades, eds.（1997） Tourism and cultural development in Asia and Oceania. Bangi :
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

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