As we approach "Visit Malaysia 2026" season next year which aims to attract over 35.6 million international tourists and generate RM147.1 billion in tourism revenue, I reflect on my experiences as a play-play tourist around KL city.
As a local, I don't often go around tourist spots - but my curiosity often gets the best of me and as a Malaysian, I should most definitely have visited and explored a few of these places. Recently retuning from a holiday abroad from Japan, where the streets were extremely walkable paired with Google Maps helping get me where I needed to be, it was also a good opportunity to assess if Malaysia is as ready and easy for tourists to get around local tourist spots.
In short, it was not very walkable.
There were a few times where I've wondered to myself how tourists would think about our roads.
In an instance after disembarking from MRT Pasar Seni and from the station, there weren't any clear signboards where I should go, but instead followed a bunch of tourists also heading in the same direction. From there, there are a few main roads to cross... with no pedestrian push buttons to press. I can't even remember if there were any traffic lights where pedestrians are supposed to cross. Anyways, I had to wait with a bunch of tourists for traffic to cease before we could cross the road, in which we all know that Malaysians would choose to press on the gas pedal than stop for pedestrians. As such, it took about 10 minutes to pass two main roads on a Friday morning. While the weather wasn't hot, it was humid, and having to wait to cross the road frustrated me - I can't imagine how tourists would feedback on our roads as compared to the ease they had at home.
Another time would be disembarking from LRT Dang Wangi for an event that's located nearby, only about 5 minutes away. Since it's so near, eh, let's try to get healthy and walk there lah. Walking there had me fearing for my safety from both traffic and robberies as a lone woman at night, as there is no clear path to walk on - except for the lonely one beside a construction area. The path was basically the left-most side the main road, with no sidewalk for pedestrians. In this case, one would probably prefer to take a Grab to whenever they needed to be rather than walking, which was what I considered.
These are just two occasions, but both already repulsed me from the idea of further exploring the city using public transport and walking by foot, which is encouraged by the government. It felt so difficult to get from one place to another especially during the last mile travel, which would be a hassle for tourists if they'd need to take another mode of vehicle such as a taxi or Grab just to reach different locations.
As such, walkability within the city needs to be improved as much as possible before 2026, before we officially welcome the influx of tourists we expect from Visit Malaysia 2026. If we're going to launch a full-fledged campaign to attract international tourists to Malaysia, we need think long-term and be prepared for the frequent questions and challenges that tourists face as they step into the country.
Malaysia is a beautiful country with rich culture and heritage, let's not have roadblocks like these stop us from sharing them with citizens of the world, and really put Malaysia on the map as one of the must-visit-at-least-once-in-your-lifetime locations globally.
C Chai is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
