MALAYSIA recorded 17.5 million international tourist arrivals from January to May this year, said the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC).
Its minister, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, said this showed an increase of 3.4 per cent compared to the same period last year.
To reduce the impact of the uncertain global situation and conflicts in West Asia, he said the ministry is diversifying market sources and tourism products.
“Among these are aggressively promoting in more stable markets, including Asia Pacific, such as China, Russia, Central Asia and Australia, in addition to strengthening products such as Muslim-friendly tourism.
“This strategy aims to minimise the impact on visitor arrivals and disruption to flight capacity from affected regions,” he said in a written reply in the Dewan Rakyat.
Tiong was responding to a question from Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (PN-Gua Musang) on the latest status of the success of Visit Malaysia Year (TMM 2026).
He said that at the same time, through MyCEB, MOTAC continues to strengthen the business event (MICE) segment to attract high-quality visitors and increase visitor spending.
For the first half of this year, he said, a total of 194 international business events were organised with the attendance of more than 340,000 delegates, generating an economic impact (EEI) of RM1.82 billion.
MyCEB also successfully brought in 162 international business events that will take place from the second half of 2026 to 2030.
“These events are expected to attract 350,686 delegates and generate an economic impact of RM2.53 billion to the country,” he added. – July 15, 2026
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