KUALA LUMPUR – Local tourism expenditure last year fell 60.8% to RM40.4 billion from the RM103.2 billion recorded in 2019, according to the Domestic Tourism Survey 2020 Report issued by the Statistics Department today.
The chief statistician’s office, in a statement, said it is the first decline since 2008, when the department started collating data from the survey.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said movement controls implemented to curb the Covid-19 pandemic hit domestic tourism activities.
“Overall, domestic visitor arrivals were down 44.6% at 131.7 million compared with 239.1 million in 2019, resulting in a fall of 60.8% in total spending to RM40.4 billion from RM103.2 billion previously.”
The poorer performance in 2020 was driven by a decline in daily local tourist numbers and spending by 65.9% and 51.1%, respectively.
On the number of trips, Uzir said domestic visitors undertook 147 million trips last year, a slide of 55.8% on-year.
On spending, he said shopping was the biggest contributor at 52.6%, up from 37.8% in 2019, of overall expenditure by these visitors, followed by food and beverages (18.6%, up from 14.3% previously).
Fuel made up 9% of the total, down from 15% a year ago.
“This is the first time that expenditure on food and beverages is higher than fuel,” said Uzir.
He added that it is the first time since 2008 that contribution from travelling for shopping, which recorded 42.3% (35.4% in 2019), has surpassed the trip contribution from visiting relatives and friends (32.0%, down from 42.3% in 2019).
This is followed by contribution for holidays and leisure at 16.9% (9% in 2019).
Selangor was the most-visited state by domestic travellers last year, followed by Perak (13.2 million), Kuala Lumpur (12.4 million), Sabah (10.3 million) and Kedah (10.1 million). – Bernama, June 30, 2021
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