Abstract
Malaysia's tourism sector has moved from crisis response to strategic repositioning since the COVID-19 pandemic. This article reviews 66 scholarly sources published between 2023 and 2026 that address tourism management in Malaysia. Using a structured thematic classification, the corpus is organised into six domains: (1) post-pandemic recovery, resilience, and governance; (2) destination image, marketing, competitiveness, and visitor experience; (3) smart tourism and digital technologies; (4) social media, user-generated content, and generational markets; (5) sustainable tourism and ecotourism; and (6) niche and special-interest tourism. The review shows that research attention has shifted from pandemic impact assessment toward technology-enabled experience design, sustainability-oriented competitiveness, and market diversification. Three cross-cutting patterns emerge: the growing centrality of memorable experience, satisfaction, and revisit intention as outcome variables; the convergence of digital and sustainability agendas; and a persistent reliance on cross-sectional, tourist-side survey designs. Significant gaps remain in supply-side and community perspectives, longitudinal evidence, evaluation of policy instruments, and the environmental costs of digitalisation. An integrative framework and a research agenda are proposed to guide future work and policy.