Tourist arrivals for the first eleven months of 2009 have surpassed the 19 million target set by the government for this year. Malaysia has recorded a total of 21,505,120 tourist arrivals from January to November 2009 compared to 19,993,804 tourist arrivals for the same period in 2008, representing an increase of 7.6%.

For the month of November 2009, tourist arrivals showed an increase of 11% with 2,048,595 tourists compared to 1,845,645 for the same period last year.

For November 2009, Singapore maintained its position as the largest tourist generating market for Malaysia with 1,157,094 Singaporeans visiting the country. Others in the top ten list were: Indonesia (196,592), Thailand (97,093), China (including Hong Kong & Macau) (94,322), Brunei (86,296), India (51,279), Australia (46,322), the Philippines (37,875), United Kingdom (35,222) and Japan (30,663).

The Saudi Arabia market registered the highest growth of 119.5%. Significant growth was also recorded for arrivals from UAE (80.3%), Bangladesh (56.8%), Iran (47.4%), Australia (32.6%), Vietnam (28.0%), China (including Hong Kong & Macau) (25.2%), India (20.7%),  South Korea (20.2%), Singapore (20.1%), France (18.7%), Taiwan (17.2%), South Africa (15.0%),  United Kingdom (14.0%), New Zealand (12.0%), USA (11.8%) and the Philippines (10.7%).

The top ten tourist generating markets from January to November 2009 were: Singapore (11,659,972), Indonesia (2,149,520), Thailand (1,316,755), Brunei (933,987), China (including Hong Kong & Macau) (924,816), India (525,531), Australia (474,411), the Philippines (408,070), the United Kingdom (398,125) and Japan (362,702).

For more information, please visit Tourism Malaysia’s online Facts and Figures at
http://www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/corporate/research.asp?page=facts_figures.