Tourists, Expatriates and International Retirees: An Empirical Evidence from Malaysia

Malaysia relies heavily on tourism industry to spur its economic growth. Parallel to the growth of tourists, Malaysia is also a popular destination for international retiree migration through the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme and expatriates. Hence this study attempts to investigate the relationship between tourists, expatriates and MM2H participants. The pull factors of Malaysia as a destination of tourism, expatriates and international retirees are prevalent, and could be further supported through analysis of the relationship between the three variables. This study employs secondary data from 1998 to 2012. Several methods of analysis are used to analyse the data, such as Unit Root Test, Co-integration Test and Granger Causality Test. The findings show that there is a unidirectional relationship between expatriates and MM2H participants. Public and private sectors need to cooperate to attract more expatriates in order to create the pull of MM2H participants. Meanwhile, tourism development policy must be improved to retain Malaysia as a premier destination for foreigners to work, live and relax.