Malaysia makes staggering tourism gains
January 21, 2011 by Don Ross
Filed under News, Southeast Asia
PHNOM PENH, 21 January 2011 – Malaysia will achieve around 26 million visitors in 2010 with an estimated revenue of RM19.7 billion, the country’s deputy minister of tourism, James Dawos Mamit, claimed during a media briefing, Thursday, at the ASEAN tourism Forum.
Admitting they were provisional figures the deputy minster noted the official data for arrivals and revenue for January to September confirmed the country was on target with RM18.2 million arrivals and earnings of RM13.12 billion during the first nine months.
Official figures for that period indicate the four top markets were Singapore 9.650,663 tourist arrivals, Indonesia 1,842,277, Thailand 1,090,829 and China 830,000.
Bullish about the future, he talked about long-term plans that will raise Malaysia to “developed nation status” by 2020 when tourist arrivals could reach a staggering 36 million and revenue of RM56 billion.
Despite his emphasis on tourist arrivals, he claimed the country placed more importance on sustainable, eco-friendly tourism that included offering financial incentives and awards to companies that specialised in eco-tourism projects.
Homestay projects too are a priority this year with Tourism Malaysia claiming the market has strong appeal in Japan where bookings for this kind of accommodation increased 17%.
Greetings and good day from Tourism Malaysia!
Thank you for a fine article. However, would like to make a slight amanedment on the article, paragraph 4, last line….should read ….revenue of RM168 billion (or USd 54 billion) instead of RM56 billion.
Thank you and kind regards
Discount the Singapore popping-across-the-border visitors for a more realistic figure of how attractive Malaysia is, now and in the future. Then you get about 15 million for 2010 and probably about 20 million for 2020. That’s still pretty good, though.
Interesting not least because if you take out the obvious Thai and Sing arrivals, it’s still well above the claimed total visitor numbers for Thailand. Do we disbelieve these figures like all the rest, or has Malaysia got it right? KL’s certainly a welcoming place these days – easy entry, no hassling at immigration, and you can get a drink all day……….