Tourism Sector Contributed $20.7 Billion to Malaysia’s Economy in 2018

The tourism sector contributed RM84.1 billion ($20.7 billion) to Malaysia’s economy last year, up by 2.4 percent compared to the RM82.2 billion the previous year, said Malaysia’s Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi on 27^th Feb.

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The top 10 sources of tourism to the country last year were ;

1.Singapore (10.6 million visitors)

2.Indonesia (3.28 million)

3.China (2.9 million)

4.Thailand (1.9 million)

5.Brunei (1.38 million)

6.South Korea (616,783)

7.India (600,311)

8.the Philippines (396,062)

9.Japan (394,540)

10.Taiwan (383,922)

Although international tourist arrivals fell slightly from 25.9 million in 2017 to 25.8 million in 2018, the per capita expenditure of tourists rose 2.9 percent from RM3,166 to RM3,257, said the minister.

Mohamaddin said the biggest contributor in tourist expenditure was the ASEAN short-haul market at RM48.5 billion, but there was a drop of 12.8 percent compared to RM55.6 billion in 2017.

The non-ASEAN market contributed RM35.6 billion are ;

1.East Asia (RM18.4 billion)

2.Europe (RM5.5 billion)

3.South Asia (RM3.8 billion)

4.West Asia (RM3.1 billion)

5.the United States (RM1.8 billion)

6.Australia (RM1.6 billion)

Tourist spending was focused on shopping (33.4 percent), followed by accommodation (25.7 percent) and food and drinks (13.4 percent) and the average tourist stay rose from 5.7 nights in 2017 to 6.5 nights in 2018.

Malaysia will aim for 28.1 million tourists this year with tourism income of RM92.2 billion, said Mohamaddin. This is expected to rise to 30 million tourists with an income of RM100 billion with the country’s Visit Malaysia 2020 initiative according to Channel News Asia.