Over the years, many travel vloggers have visited Malaysia and produced content about our country. So much so that on YouTube, there’s a niche “subcategory” of foreigners exploring our beautiful landscapes and experiencing the local culture firsthand.
However, have you ever noticed how these Malaysian travel videos on YouTube are more or less the same? The titles are along the lines of “Malaysia surprises us!”, “This is Malaysia?”, “Malaysia shocked us!”, or something similar.
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Moreover, the thumbnails of these videos are almost identical, the places visited are the same, and they eat the same food, such as Ramly burger, Nasi Lemak and so on. So, what’s the deal about this?
YouTube ‘rewards’ travel YouTubers for making content in Malaysia
Well, according to popular Thai-based British YouTuber Paddy Doyle, who has been making travel content on his personal channel and The Budgeteers channel for years, the reason why so many travel YouTubers travel to Malaysia and make almost identical content is because YouTube ‘rewards’ them for doing so.
In case you’re not familiar, Paddy is probably most well-known for his video series during the pandemic, where he travelled to all of Thailand’s provinces on a Honda EX5 motorcycle he named “Dreamy”.
In a refreshingly transparent video recapping what his channel did in 2022 and the plans for 2023, Paddy revealed that there are countries where, if travel content creators visit and make videos about, their channels would likely get many views and subscribers in a short time.
Paddy asserted,
“When travel vloggers go there, those videos tend to do much better because they’re in that country. YouTube has certain demographics that watch YouTube more than other countries.”
He then listed examples of these nations being Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan and India.
Paddy further elaborated that when travel YouTubers make travel vlogs in these countries, make videos and “title them the same way that everybody titles them, the thumbnails the same”, they’ll get clicked on by the locals of these nations.
Can gain over 30,000 new subscribers in 2 months, but there’s a catch
Moreover, Paddy said that doing these is great for the short term, revealing that travel YouTubers can get “30,000 subscribers in a couple of months, maybe more if you’re lucky and you work hard,”.
However, this is not good for travel YouTubers in the long term, as those subscribers are the locals of the aforementioned nations, and when the content creators leave the country, the new subscribers will be less likely to watch their content anymore. Accordingly, this would hurt their videos’ algorithm on YouTube in the future.
As for Malaysia, Paddy said that the Malaysian audience loves to watch foreigners navigate the country and eat their food.
Hence, that’s why the British YouTuber said that for his plans for 2023, he planned to go to countries where he personally wanted to visit, and if possible, those countries are also nations where YouTube ‘rewards’ travel vloggers for visiting.
He also stressed that if he were to visit the said countries, he would want it to be on brand with his channel and with an idea and to get to know the country rather than just go there and make the same videos everybody makes.
You can watch the whole video here:
So, which countries did Paddy travel to in 2023?
In 2024, the British YouTuber shared a video update similar to the one above, this time recapping 2023 and revealing his plans for 2024.
Paddy revealed that he achieved his goals for 2023, including achieving over 200,000 subscribers, making 156 YouTube videos and more.
As for the countries he made travel videos at in 2023, they included the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, Switzerland, Italy, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
For Malaysia, Paddy travelled around Sabah and hiked up Mount Kinabalu. You can watch his travel series in North Borneo here.
So, what do you guys think of Paddy’s sharing on why travel vloggers are always coming to Malaysia and making content here? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
Also read: M’sian YouTuber Celebrates CNY in Red Boxers & Cape After Stephen Chow Reposted His IG Story
