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Malaysia Receives a Record 25 Million Tourist Arrivals Last Year

PENANG, 3 FEBRUARY 2013: Malaysia posted an impressive overall tourism growth in 2012, capping off a string of tourism accolades that placed the nation in the global limelight. Tourist arrivals rose to 25,032,708 compared to 24,714,324 in 2011 and receipts climbed to RM60.6 billion compared to RM58.3 billion the previous year.

"I am extremely happy that the tourism industry has consistently registered growth year after year. I believe this is largely due to the Government's strong support in recognizing tourism as an important economic driver as well as the concerted efforts of our trade and media partners to market and brand Malaysia as the most preferred tourist destination," said Minister of Tourism Dato' Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen.

TABLE 1: TOP TEN ARRIVALS TO MALAYSIA BY COUNTRY OF NATIONALITY
SOURCE: TOURISM MALAYSIA WITH THE COOPERATION OF IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT


Rank Country of Nationality 2012 2011 % Change
1 SINGAPORE 13,014,268 13,372,647 -2.7
2 INDONESIA 2,382,606 2,134,381 +11.6
3 CHINA 1,558,785 1,250,536 +24.6
4 THAILAND 1,263,024 1,442,048 -12.4
5 BRUNEI 1,258,070 1,239,404 +1.5
6 INDIA 691,271 693,056 -0.3
7 PHILIPPINES 508,744 362,101 +40.5
8 AUSTRALIA 507,948 558,411 -9.0
9 JAPAN 470,008 386,974 +21.5
10 UNITED KINGDOM 402,207 403,940 -0.4

Under Malaysia's Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), tourism was identified as one of the 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) to drive the nation's economic growth. Since then, a number of tourism development projects have been put in place in order to achieve 36 million tourist arrivals and RM168 billion tourism receipts by 2020.

Among the tourism initiatives undertaken last year were the physical transformation of the Bukit Bintang-Kuala Lumpur City Centre to improve the shopping experience, the opening of several new tourist attractions including Asia's first Legoland, as well as the hosting of several business and international events.

TABLE 2: TOP TEN MARKETS SHOWING DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH
SOURCE: TOURISM MALAYSIA WITH THE COOPERATION OF IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT


Rank Country of Nationality 2012 2011 % Change
1 IRAQ 21,939 13,568 +61.7
2 NEPAL 123,173 81,791 +50.6
3 PHILIPPINES 508,744 362,101 +40.5
4 BANGLADESH 86,465 65,603 +31.8
5 LAOS 38,364 29,520 +30.0
6 CHINA 1,558,785 1,250,536 +24.6
7 JAPAN 470,008 386,974 +21.5
8 VIETNAM 211,008 173,783 +21.4
9 SAUDI ARABIA 102,365 87,693 +16.7
10 KAZAKHSTAN 20,188 17,462 +15.6

To further capitalize on Malaysia's consistent tourism growth as well as the expected surge of tourists to the Asia Pacific area over the next few years, Malaysia is embarking on an intensive promotional campaign this year that will culminate in the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 (VMY 2014) when the nation welcomes 28 million tourists.

"We are on track towards meeting our long term targets and we hope that the VMY 2014 and the promotional campaign this year will significantly boost our tourism performance," continued Dato' Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen.

Just two weeks earlier, Prime Minister Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak launched the VMY 2014 promotional campaign at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, during which he reiterated that VMY 2014 was a national mission to be undertaken by everyone including the rakyat.
Issued by: Communications & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
For more information, kindly contact Anis Ramli at 03-8891 8000 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: http://www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my
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Blog: http://blog.tourism.gov.my

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