ARRIVALS to Malaysia are on the rise with 10 per cent year-on-year growth recorded for 1Q2014 at 7.1 million, over 6.5 million for the same period last year.
According to statistics from the Immigration Department of Malaysia, Singapore remains Malaysia’s largest source market by a large margin with 3.5 million arrivals in Q1.
In contrast, Malaysia’s second-largest source market, Indonesia, sent 676,328 arrivals. China takes third (520,466), followed by Thailand (333,131), Brunei (296,119), India (172,899), Australia (156,662), Japan (149,859), the Philippines (144,932), and the UK (125,814).
Malaysia’s growth comes in the face of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370, which led to a suspension of Visit Malaysia Year promotions in China (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 28, 2014).
Unsurprisingly, South-east Asian countries accounted for 72.1 per cent or 5.1 million arrivals. Vietnam took tops for the highest growth of 30.1 per cent.
On the medium-haul front, South Korea saw the highest growth rate with 37.1 per cent. Medium-haul markets provided 20.1 per cent of arrivals or 1.4 million tourists.
Longhaul markets sent 0.5 million tourists or 7.9 per cent of total arrivals. The number of arrivals from Russia grew the fastest at a rate of 25.3 per cent.
