The year 2008 has begun on a positive note for Malaysia's tourism industry. In January 2008 Malaysia received 1,780,134 tourists, an increase of 3.4% compared to the same period in the previous year.

Table 1: Comparison of tourist arrivals to Malaysia (January 2007 and 2008)

Source: Immigration Department of Malaysia

The top ten tourist generating markets for January 2008 were Singapore (861,015), Indonesia (179,848), Thailand (108,730), Brunei (77,548), China (73,233), Australia (38,868), India (38,394), Japan (34,246), United Kingdom (28,724) and South Korea (26,216).

For the month of January 2008, double digit growth was recorded for tourist arrivals from Canada (44.9%), Cambodia (41.6%), the Netherlands (37.9%), New Zealand (30.0%), Australia (29.1%), Germany (26.5%), India (22.8%), France (19.3%), Indonesia (13.2%) and United Kingdom (11.0%).

Issued by: Advertising & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
Date: 13 March 2008
For more information, please contact Rasidah Salleh at rasidah@tourism.gov.my 
Tel: +603 2615 8188; Fax: +603 2692 4563
Website: www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my