Economic Impact
In the early days, the tourism development in Malaysia was not as blossom as compared to the South-East Asia country such as Indonesia and Thailand. As time evolved, the tourism industry had contributed a significance number to the GDP growth, investment and employments as well as strengthening the services account of the balance of the payments. The sectors related to the tourism industry such as accommodation, transportation, food and beverage outlets and etc have also received tremendous growth as a result of the booming tourism industry. Some statistics had proven the tremendous growth of tourism industry is the receipts increased from RM 8580.5 million in 1998 to RM 53367.7 million in 2009. 2009 is the year which is a manifold increase in the time period.
Growth of the tourism industry had lead to the economy substainability. According to the Ninth Malaysia Plan, 492,000 jobs were provided in 2006 by tourism related activities. It represent the total of 4.4% of the total workforce in Malaysia. The tourism industry leads to the growth of other related industries also which further generates more income. In addition, tourism will help the group of low income by rejuvenating the traditional industries such as handicrafts.
Social Impact
Cultural mixing is one of the identities of Malaysia. The arrival of the tourists from different part of country enhances and diversifies the culture again. The interaction between the local community with the tourists and hence lead to the enrichment of culture. However, bear in mind that too much interaction and the acceptance of foreign culture may cause the change or loss of indigenous identity and value. The cultural tourists seek for the authenticity. There is also culture clashes such as irritation caused due to the tourist behavior. Malaysia is a Muslim country and still conservative in terms of wearing. The female tourists from Europe who like the weather will wear the bikini. Hence, this is considered as one of the irritation caused. The job level friction exists too. Although tourism creates a lot of job opportunity to the local community, the local people still at the lower level jobs such as waiter, dish washer, and counter staff. The managerial positions always go to the foreigners.
Another negative impact is also the rise of ethical issue such as prostitution and sex tourism. In 1998, the International Labor Organization reported 2-14% of GDP of Malaysia comes from sex tourism. This is an unhealthy figure. In the sex tourism, mostly are the children who are below 18 years old. The emerging of the sex tourism is caused by poverty, uneven development, official corruption and gender discrimination.
