INTERNATIONAL MARKET PROFILES: MALAYSIAN LEISURE MARKET

In today’s ATE Market Segments profile, we look at the Malaysian Leisure market. Australia and Malaysia share historical links including education from the days of the Colombo Plan. From the 1950s onwards, Malaysians came to Australia to study with many choosing to stay after graduation. As Malaysia's affluence has increased, more students come to study as self-financed students. In 2012, there were almost 22,000 enrolments from Malaysian students making them the fifth largest student market to Australia.

The introduction of budget air travel in Malaysia however has dramatically changed the landscape of domestic and international tourism. Budget airlines, such as AirAsia X, Tiger Air and Jetstar Asia, have begun offering consumers affordable flights to Australia.

New South Wales is well placed to attract more Malaysian leisure travellers now that AirAsia X has launched their Kuala Lumpur-Sydney service in April 2012, with the daily service increasing competition on the route. Average airfares continue to decline and remain well below the peaks prior to GFC in late 2008. The 35% increase in seats from Malaysia to Sydney in year-end October 2012 came solely from the introduction of Air Asia X services from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney.

To download the fact sheet and learn more about this market segment, please visit the Destination NSW website.