Malaysia records 2.4% year-on-year growth in tourist arrivals

TOURISM Malaysia has just released the latest statistics on inbound tourist arrivals. Malaysia welcomed 11.6 million tourists from January to June, registering a growth of 2.4 per cent compared to 11.4 million arrivals for the same period last year.

Correspondingly, total tourist receipts rose by four per cent, generating RM26.8 billion (US$8.6 million) in revenue compared to RM25.7 billion in 2011.

The ASEAN region continued to be the largest contributor of tourist arrivals with a 73.8 per cent share of total arrivals. It also saw a one per cent decrease in arrivals due to the change in the system for recording arrivals, which is now based on nationality, rather than country of residence.

Thus, expatriates working or living in ASEAN countries were not regarded as ASEAN travellers. This was reflected in the decreased arrivals from Singapore (-4.8 per cent), Thailand (-11.5 per cent), Brunei (-1.2 per cent) and Cambodia (-4.2 per cent).

The top 10 generating markets were Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Brunei, India, Australia, the Philippines, Japan and the UK. These markets accounted for 87.5 per cent of total tourist arrivals.

The Philippines recorded the highest growth of 45.3 per cent year-on-year, followed by China (34.2 per cent), Japan (32.5 per cent), Indonesia (20 per cent), India (6.9 per cent) and the UK (5.9 per cent).

Longhaul markets that had posted significant growth were Oman (33.2 per cent), Russia (28.2 per cent), France (20.6 per cent), the US (18.9 per cent), South Korea (18 per cent), Kuwait (17.4 per cent) and Denmark (15.7 per cent).

Saudi Arabia saw a 71.7 per cent increase in arrivals because of a new rule that requires all outgoing travellers to own individual passports. Prior to this ruling, children travelled on their parent’s passports. Two periods of long holidays – January to March and June to July – also contributed to the increase in arrivals.

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