KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 – A total of 11,632,483 tourists visited Malaysia for the first six months of this year, registering a growth of 2.4 per cent over the figure for the same period last year.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said correspondingly, total tourist receipts for the first half of this year rose by 4 per cent, generating RM26.8 billion in revenue for the country’s revenue compared to RM25.7 billion in 2011.
She said the Asean region continued to be the largest contributor of tourist arrivals with a 73.8 per cent share of the total arrivals.
The top 10 generating markets were Singapore (5,832,330), Indonesia (1,108,361), China (758,289), Thailand (638,641), Brunei (588,165), India (365,104), Australia (242,579), the Philippines (238,175), Japan (215,872) and United Kingdom (197,738).
“They accounted for 87.55 per cent of the total tourist arrivals. Among these markets, the Philippines recorded the highest growth of 45.3 per cent year-on-year followed by China (34.2 per cent), Japan (32.5 per cent), Indonesia (20 per cent), India (6.9 per cent) and United Kingdom (5.9 per cent),” she said in a statement, here, today.
Other long-haul markets that had posted remarkable growth were Oman (33.2 per cent), Russia (28.2 per cent), France (20.6 per cent), United States (18.9 per cent), South Korea (18 per cent), Kuwait (17.4 per cent) and Denmark (15.7 per cent).
Dr Ng attributed the increase to the strong support from trade partners and the increase of air connectivity to several key destinations such as Beijing, Hong Kong and Kansai.
She said key international-level events such as the Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix, 1Malaysia GP Sale and 1Malaysia International Shoe Festival also contributed to the growth.
The minister said there was a 71.7 per cent increase in the Saudi Arabian tourist arrivals due to the country’s Immigration new rule which required all outgoing travellers to own individual passports.
“Prior to this ruling, children travelled on their parent’s passports.”
Dr Ng said the number of Australian tourists had declined by 10.4 per cent since many Australian permanent residents were nationals of other countries such as New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East, India and China.
She said the decline was also due to Malaysia Airlines’ withdrawal of the Perth-Kota Kinabalu route since January.
Tourist arrivals from New Zealand, Sweden and South Africa also declined by 16.3 per cent, 22.4 per cent and 10.7 per cent respectively, she added. – Bernama
Sourced: themalaysianinsider
