Malaysia records 2.4% increase in tourist arrivals during Jan-Jun, 2012

Malaysia recorded 11,632,478 tourist arrivals for the first six months of 2012, registering a growth of 2.4 per cent compared to 11,362,862 arrivals during the same period last year. Correspondingly, total tourist receipts from January to June 2012 rose by 4.0 per cent, generating RM26.8 billion to the country’s revenue compared to RM25.7 billion in 2011.

ASEAN region contributed largely to the tourist arrivals with 73.8 per cent share of the total arrivals. The top ten 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 (196,738). 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 (20.0 per cent), India (6.9 per cent) and United Kingdom (5.9 per cent). Other long-haul markets that had posted growth were Oman (33.2 per cent), Russia (28.2 per cent), France (20.6 per cent), USA (18.9 per cent), South Korea (18.0 per cent), Kuwait (17.4 per cent) and Denmark (15.7 per cent).

Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen, Tourism Minister of Malaysia attributed the growth in arrivals to the strong support from trade partners and the increased air connectivity to several key destinations such as Beijing, Hong Kong and Kansai. She believes that participation in key international tourism events also contributed to the continued growth in tourist arrivals in Malaysia.

Sourced: travelbizmonitor