Tourism Contributes RM41.69 Billion To Malaysia Economy With 13.35 Million Tourists In The First Half Of 2019

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.

Year		First Half 2018		First Half 2019		Growth
Tourist arrivals		12,730,368		13,354,575		+4.9%
Tourist receipts		RM39.0 billion		RM41.69 billion		+6.8%
Per capita expenditure		RM3,064.7		RM3,121.6		+1.9%
ALOS		5.8 nights		6.2 nights		+0.4 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).

-Tourism Malaysia.