PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s economy was boosted with a total of RM86.14 billion in tourist receipts from the expenditure of 26,100,784 international tourists who visited Malaysia throughout 2019.
In tandem with small positive growth of tourist arrivals by +1.0% compared to 2018, the total tourist receipts contribution recorded a growth of +2.4%. Meanwhile, tourism performance also saw growth in terms of per capita expenditure, rising by +1.3% to RM3,300 while the Average Length of Stay (ALOS) climbed by +0.9 nights to 7.4 nights.
Top ten international tourist arrivals for 2019 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).
Tourist arrivals growth was seen in South Asia (+22.2%), East Asia (+5.9%), Americas (+4.3%) and Europe (+0.3%) while declines were recorded for ASEAN (-1.3%) and West Asia (-2.1%) markets.
In terms of overall tourist expenditure, the ASEAN region remained the biggest contributor, contributing a total of RM43.72 billion. Meanwhile, West Asia tourists recorded the highest per capita expenditure with RM10,214 an increase of +2.7% compared with RM9,947 in 2018.
The top three distribution of tourist receipts went to shopping (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.
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). BIZ TODAY MONITOR
