Malaysia's 2020 International Tourist Arrivals Plunge 83.4 Pct To 4.33 Mln

KUALA LUMPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Mar, 2021 ) :Malaysia's international tourist arrivals in 2020 plunged 83.4 percent to 4.33 million from 26.1 million in 2019, as COVID-19 pandemic hit the tourism market.

Malaysia Tourism Promotion board or Tourism Malaysia said in a statement Wednesday that Malaysia's tourist receipts also plummeted 85.3 percent to 12.69 billion Ringgit (about 3.07 billion U.S. Dollars) in 2020, from 86.14 billion ringgit in 2019.

The average per capita expenditure dropped by 11.3 percent to a total of 2,928 ringgit, from 3,300 ringgit in 2019, it added.

"Negative growth had been observed for tourists from every market, namely short-haul market (-83.5 percent), medium-haul market (-84.7 percent), and long-haul market (-79.7 percent)." "The massive drop in international tourist arrivals is attributed to the closure of Malaysian borders since 18 March 2020 due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic," it said.

According to Tourism Malaysia, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries or the short-haul market remains as Malaysia's top contributor with a 68.1 percent share of tourist arrivals, followed by the medium-haul market with a domination of 20.1 percent share, which includes East Asia and South Asia.

The long-haul market share was 11.8 percent, with tourists from West Asia, middle East, America, Oceania, Europe and Africa.

Top international tourist arrivals to Malaysia were from Singapore, Indonesia and China.

"In terms of overall tourist expenditure, the top five contributors came from Singapore, Indonesia, China, India and Thailand," it said.