Melaka has been attracting visitors for more than half a millennia

 

I FELT a sense of déjà vu when reading a report with the heading “Melaka to host VM 2026 launch during World Tourism Day 2025”.

The announcement was made by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing in an engagement session with over 1,000 tourism industry players held at Bukit Cina on Mar 20.

Tourism industry veterans would be able to recall the previous Visit Malaysia Years in 1990, 1994, 2007, 2014 and 2020, which was aborted after COVID-19 struck.

The next Visit Malaysia Year was initially slated for 2025 but was later rescheduled to VM 2026, with the ‘Year’ dropped.

Most tourism personnel may not be familiar with World Tourism Day (WTD) and World Tourism Conference (WTC). WTD is held annually on Sept 27 and WTC every three years, with the host countries working closely with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

This year, both events will be held over the same period and Malaysia was again chosen as host. We first hosted the WTC in 2007 at Kuala Lumpur and three years later in 2010 at Kota Kinabalu. Both were very well organised and earned due recognition from UNWTO.

Hence, we again won the bid to host the 2013 WTC and the conference venue was at the 496-room Hotel Equatorial in Melaka.

While most of the delegates were being housed at this hotel, I conducted training for 168 participants from the local tourism industry in the hotel’s ballroom.

For VMY 2014, a programme called “We Are The Host” (WATH) was developed to train tourism personnel and in 2013, I was invited to join the first batch to be trained as certified trainers. The official who made the phone call told me that I will be representing the leading travel association.

I immediately pointed out that I was no longer associated with the association but the caller was unwavering, and could have received clear instruction to get me in. Later, I was ostracised by some officials in the association, partly due to my published impartial views of the travel industry.

But later, I was invited by new officials to join the association as a staff member and served from 2014 to 2020 until the movement control order halted most activities. But this year, Malaysia would be able to easily surpass 2019 tourist arrivals, having already exceeded tourism revenue.

(Image: Tropical Sojourn)

To understand better why Melaka had long been a tourism success story is by looking at some of the movers and shakers in the past. Take for example the training of trainers for WATH in 2013. Among the many participants was Datuk Lim Chow Beng, the ministry’s state director for Melaka.

Earlier, I was organising chairman for tourist guide training courses in the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents.

During the 23rd Kuala Lumpur course in 1993, Lim often dropped in to check. Later, he was appointed trainer for several modules covering all the regions of Malaysia.

Twenty years later in 2013 and 2014, I was frequently appointed by the ministry’s Melaka office to conduct WATH at its auditorium, and the state director could follow the proceedings from his room by watching CCTV. He could easily tell if any trainer or speaker was not up to mark.

Lim also worked closely with the chief minister at that time, as they often went out together to personally inspect various sites in Melaka after office hours. Such zeal to make a popular tourist destination even better was probably unrivalled.

To me, Melaka was the birthplace for “Truly Asia”, long before the tagline “Malaysia Truly Asia” was conceptualised and introduced in 1999 and has remained the most successful slogan ever. Those who have studied history should be able to connect the past to the present and the future.

More than 500 years ago when the Portuguese arrived to negotiate a trade agreement, Melaka was already a bustling port with merchant ships and people from West, South, Southeast and East Asia visiting for trade or residing there.

In its heyday, as many as 84 different languages were spoken, making Melaka a microcosm of Asia and much of the world at that time.

And when delegates from around the globe gather in Melaka come September, it would be nothing new except they could now fly instead of sail.

YS Chan is master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and Travel and Tours Enhancement Course and an Asean Tourism Master Trainer. He is also a tourism and transport business consultant.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

- Focus Malaysia.