KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded a growth of 2.4% to RM86.14 bil in tourist receipts in 2019 from RM84.1 bil in the previous year and welcomed another 1% of international tourists to 26.1 billion versus 25.83 previously.
The Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (Tourism Malaysia) said during the year, per capita expenditure rose by 1.3% to RM3,300 from RM3,257, while the Average Length of Stay (ALOS) climbed by 0.9 nights to 7.4 nights compared with 6.5 nights previously.
Tourist arrivals growth was seen in South Asia at 22.2%, followed by East Asia (5.9%), Americas (4.3%), and Europe (0.3%).
However, tourist arrivals from the Asean and West Asian markets declined 1.3% and 2.1%, respectively.
Top ten international tourist arrivals were from Singapore (10,163,882), Indonesia (3,623,277), China (3,114,257), Thailand (1,884,306), Brunei (1,216,123), India (735,309), South Korea (673,065), Japan (424,694), the Philippines (421,908) and Vietnam (400,346).
Of overall tourist expenditure, the Asean region remained the biggest contributor at RM43.72 bil.
West Asian tourists recorded the highest per capita expenditure at RM10,214, an increase of 2.7% compared with RM9,947 in 2018.
The top three distribution of tourist receipts went to shopping at 33.6%, accommodation (24%) and food and beverages (13.3%).
“Once again, shopping receipts exceeded that of accommodation, growing from a 33.4% share in 2018 to 33.6% share in 2019,” said Tourism Malaysia.
Meanwhile, markets showing increase in average lengths of stay included West Asia (9.8 nights), Europe (8.8 nights), Americas (8.2 nights), East Asia (6.5 nights), South Asia (6.4 nights), and Asean (4.9 nights). – April 10, 2020, Bernama
