UAE in Malaysia's top five tourism markets

Emirati families and expatriates in UAE are among the growing number of tourists in Malaysia, putting UAE as third next to India and South Korea in its top five tourism markets worldwide.

In terms of growth, the top five markets were India at 17.1 per cent, South Korea at 16.2 per cent, the UAE at 16 per cent, Iran at 14.3 per cent and Cambodia at 12.7 per cent. On the average, tourists stayed 6.8 nights in 2010, a slight increase of 0.1 from 6.7 nights in 2009.

Tourism Malaysia-Dubai records showed that Malaysia is listed as one of the top 10 countries for "Best in Travel 2010" and one of the "Best-value Destination for 2010" by the Lonely Planet. Malaysia registered 24,577,196 tourist arrivals in 2010, an increase of 3.9 per cent in 2010 as compared to 2009.

Kuala Lumpur has been ranked fourth in Euromonitor International's report on Top City Destination Ranking 2009, ahead of such popular destinations such as Paris, Hong, Kong, New York City and Dubai. The city recorded 9,400,000 tourist arrivals in 2009.

The report showed that while total arrivals to 100 of the world's cities fell by 3.5 per cent due to the global economic crisis, Kuala Lumpur recorded an increase of 5.2 per cent in tourist arrivals compared to the previous year.

In its report, Euromonitor International expects cities in emerging markets to continue to steal a share of global arrivals, especially in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa. This shift will be accelerated by the expansion of low cost carriers and rising middle classes that are travelling in ever greater numbers, especially intra-regionally. Those cities serving as main airport hubs are expected to benefit from this regional movement, namely São Paulo, Johannesburg, and Kuala Lumpur.

In explaining its research methodology, Euromonitor International defined "international tourists" as any person visiting another country for at least 24 hours, for a period not exceeding 12 months, and staying in collective or private accommodation.

Source = zawya