PUTRAJAYA, 29 MAY 2019 – The nation’s tourism industry recorded a positive growth in the first quarter of 2019 with tourist expenditure registering an increase of +16.9% to reach RM21.4 billion compared to RM18.3 billion in 2018.

Per capita expenditure also showed a hike of +13.8% from RM2,813.1 in 2018 to RM3,201.8 in 2019.

Tourist arrivals to Malaysia recorded an increase of +2.7% in the first quarter of 2019 with a total of 6,696,230 tourists compared to 6,520,218 tourists in the same period of 2018.

Based on monthly arrivals, Malaysia welcomed a total of 2,195,684 tourists in January followed by 2,165,933 tourists in February and 2,334,613 tourists in March.

The short-haul market, i.e. ASEAN, maintained its lead as the biggest contributor of international tourist arrivals to Malaysia with a share of 68.3%, reflecting a +1.9% increase to 4,576,636 tourists in the first quarter of 2019. The increase was fueled by positive arrival growth from markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the share for the medium-haul market during the first quarter of 2019 was 21.9% with a +8.6% increase of arrivals to 1,466,993 tourists, driven mainly by China, Korea, Japan, India and Pakistan growth.

The long-haul market recorded a 9.7% share, down by -3.6% with arrivals of 652,032 tourists in Q1 of 2019.

The average length of stay (ALOS) in Malaysia for the first quarter of 2019 saw an improvement of 1.8 nights from 4.2 nights in 2018 to 6.0 nights in 2019.

The total arrivals to Malaysia for 45 main markets during the first quarter of 2019 is attached. To download the data, please visit: http://mytourismdata.tourism.gov.my/

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 & 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.

For press information, contact:

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