NO thanks to lockdowns and travel restriction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Malaysia registered a total of 4.33 million international tourist arrivals in 2020, down 83.4% from 26.1 million recorded in 2019.
However, the good news is that Malaysia is not alone in such predicament.
According to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Asia and the Pacific recorded an 84% decrease in arrivals.
Malaysia’s neighbouring ASEAN countries also saw a significant decline in the number of tourists, including Thailand (-83.2%), Singapore (-85.7%), Vietnam (-78.7%), and Indonesia (-75%), according to data from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and National Tourism Organisation (NTO).
In terms of ringgit and sen, Tourism Malaysia which today released the tourism-related figures noted that the country’s tourist receipts plunged by 85.3% from RM86.14 bil in 2019 to RM12.69 bil in 2020 with the average per capita expenditure recorded a total of RM2,928, a decline of 11.3% from RM3,300 in 2019.
Negative growth had been observed for tourists from every market, namely the short-haul market (-83.5%), medium-haul market (-84.7%), and long-haul market (-79.7%).
The massive drop in international tourist arrivals is attributed to the closure of Malaysian borders since March 18 (last year) due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ASEAN countries or the short-haul market remains as Malaysia’s top contributor with a 68.1% share of tourist arrivals (2.95 million), followed by the medium-haul market with a domination of 20.1% share which includes East Asia & South Asia (870,314).
The long-haul market share was 11.8%, with 512,484 tourists from West Asia, Middle East, America, Oceania, Europe and Africa.
The top ten international tourist arrivals to Malaysia were from Singapore (1.54 million), Indonesia (711,723), China (405,149), Thailand (394,413), India (155,883), Brunei (136,020), South Korea (119,750), Japan (74,383), Australia (72,680), and Vietnam (64,184).
In terms of overall tourist expenditure, the top five contributors came from Singapore, Indonesia, China, India and Thailand. – March 10, 2021
Photo credit: Berjaya Hotels & Resorts
