PUTRAJAYA, 23 AUGUST 2019: Malaysia welcomed a whopping 13.35 million international tourists and recorded a 6.8% growth in tourist receipts, thus contributing RM41.69 billion to the country’s revenue during the first half of 2019.

Tourism performance also saw growth in terms of per capita expenditure, rising by 1.9% to RM3,121.6 while the Average Length of Stay (ALOS) climbed by 0.4 nights to 6.2 nights.

Top ten international tourist arrivals for the first half of 2019 were from Singapore (5,381,566), Indonesia (1,857,864), China (1,558,782), Thailand (990,565), Brunei (627,112), India (354,486), South Korea (323,952), Philippines (210,974), Vietnam (200,314) and Japan (196,561).

ASEAN arrivals continued to dominate the share of tourist arrivals to Malaysia with a 70% contribution. The medium-haul market and long-haul market occupied a 20.8% share and a 9.2% share respectively.

Overall, the performance of the short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul markets registered positive increase with 4.7%, 7.1% and 1.8% growth respectively compared to the first half of 2018.

Top five countries with highest receipts were Singapore (RM11.56 billion), China (RM7.09 billion), Indonesia (RM5.71 billion), Thailand (RM1.70 billion) and Brunei (RM1.52 billion).

Top five countries with highest expenditure per capita were Saudi Arabia (RM11,376.90), United Kingdom (RM5,241.5), Canada (RM4,593.1), China (RM4,546) and United States (RM4,537.90).

Top five countries with the highest average lengths of stay were Saudi Arabia (10.5 nights), France (8.7 nights), Germany (8.3 nights), Netherlands (8.1 nights) and Canada (7.7 nights).

ENDS

For more media releases, media info and media features on Malaysia’s tourism industry, kindly visit the Media Centre of Tourism Malaysia’s website at http://www.tourism.gov.my/

MALAYSIA TOURISM PROMOTION BOARD OR TOURISM MALAYSIA is an agency under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture Malaysia. It focuses on the specific task of promoting Malaysia as a preferred tourism destination. Since its inception, it has emerged as a major player in the international tourism scene. In 2018, Malaysia registered 25.8 million tourist arrivals and RM84.1 billion tourist receipts, placing it among the major tourism destinations of the world.

Statistics contact:

Mr. Abdul Haris Hadi
Senior Deputy Director, Strategic Planning Division
abdulharis@tourism.gov.my
Tel: +603 8891 8165

Ms. Nuwal Fadhilah Ku Azmi
Senior Assistant Director, Strategic Planning Division
nuwal@tourism.gov.my
Tel: +603 8891 8159

Press contact:

Muadz Samat
Assistant Director, Corporate Communication Division
muadz@tourism.gov.my
Tel: +603 8891 8755