PUTRAJAYA – Malaysia suffered a 78.6% drop in tourist arrivals between January and September from the same period last year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The country recorded 4.29 million arrivals in the first nine months of the year compared with the 20.1 million seen a year ago, said Tourism Malaysia in a statement today.
It said tourism receipts declined by 80.9% to RM12.6 billion during the period, down from the RM66.1 billion recorded in 2019, with the per capita expenditure registering a decrease of 10.7%, from RM3,289.30 last year to RM2,938.40.
“The continued decline in the number of arrivals is due to the closure of international borders since March 18, which is part of the government’s proactive decision to curb the spread of the pandemic in Malaysia.”
The country’s tourist-generating markets continue to be dominated by Singapore (1,543,627); Indonesia (710,118); China (403,055); Thailand (372,075); India (155,448); Brunei (135,848); South Korea (119,364); Japan (73,891); Australia (72,369); and, the Philippines (65,601), it said.
The agency said negative growth has been observed in tourist numbers from every regional market, namely short-haul (-78.8%), medium-haul (-80%) and long-haul (-74%).
In terms of the number of daily visitors to the country, it said, Malaysia saw 1.73 million arrivals from January to September, a decrease of 74.9% from the 6.9 million in the corresponding period last year. – Bernama, December 7, 2020
