Tourist arrivals for first quarter continue to soar

PUTRAJAYA - Tourism Malaysia’s aggressive promotional efforts in line with the celebration of Visit Malaysia Year 2014 has kicked off the year with encouraging tourism performance.

Malaysia welcomed a total of 7.09 million (7,091,433) tourists for the first quarter of 2014, registering a hike of 10% compared to 6.45 million (6,449,398) tourists for the same period last year.

The top 10 tourist generating markets to Malaysia from January to March 2014 were Singapore (3,548,301), Indonesia (676,328), China (520,466), Thailand (333,131), Brunei (296,119), India (172,899), Australia (156,662), Japan (149859), the Philippines (144,932), and the United Kingdom (125,814).

The ASEAN region continued to be the largest contributor of tourist arrivals with 72.1% share (5.1 million) of Malaysia’s total arrivals. Among ASEAN countries, Vietnam registered the highest growth of 30.1%, followed by Thailand (+20.9%), Cambodia (+12.6%), the Philippines (+10.3%) and Singapore (+10.2%).

The upsurge of arrivals from Vietnam was due to the holiday season in February for the Vietnamese, as well as attractive promotions and discounts offered by Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Vietnam Airlines.

Malaysia’s participation in the Philippines Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) Travel Tour in February 2014 contributed to the increase in arrivals from the Philippines as a large number of tour packages to Malaysia for January to March 2014 period was sold.

Indonesia, with a 7.3% growth in arrivals, has benefited from the four new Citilink’s weekly flights from Surabaya to Johor Bahru and Surabaya to Kuala Lumpur since March 2014.

The medium-haul markets contributed 20.1% or 1.4 million tourists to Malaysia’s total arrivals. Countries that registered double-digit growth were South Korea (+37.1%), Saudi Arabia (+21.4%), Australia (+19.2%), New Zealand (+14.6%) and India (+11.2%).

The growth in arrivals from South Korea was a result of the 11 charter flights from Incheon to Kota Kinabalu in March 2014. For Saudi Arabia, it was due to their school holiday in January 2014, as well as Tourism Malaysia’s promotional activities and participation in Jeddah Travel and Tourism Exhibition (JTTX) 2014 in February 2014.

The promotions of cheap flight tickets from Darwin to Kuala Lumpur by Malaysia Airlines and Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur by AirAsia X have contributed to the increase in arrivals from Australia.

The growth in arrivals from India was because of the seven additional weekly flights by Malindo Air which connects Delhi and Kuala Lumpur since December 2013, as well as seven weekly flights from Trichy and Kuala Lumpur beginning January 2014, and five weekly flights from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur since February 2014.

A total of 0.5 million tourists or 7.9% of Malaysia’s total arrivals were contributed by the long-haul markets. The markets that posted double-digit growth were Russia (25.3%), Italy (18.3%), France (17.5%), Germany (15%), USA (12%), the Netherlands (11.8%) and Canada (10.4%).

A hike in arrivals from France was due to the three different spring holiday zones in France from February to March, which allowed French tourists to spend a longer holiday overseas.

The upsurge of arrivals in Germany was attributed to the convenient air connectivity offered by international airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airlines and Turkish Airlines.

Tourist arrivals from the United States of America also registered an increase. It was due to the improvement in economic status of the country and the sales mission to Los Angeles led by the Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia in October 2013.

Sourced: TravelDaillyNews