PUTRAJAYA: The tourism industry has seen a promising start this year with positive growth in the first quarter, registering an increase of 16.9 per cent for tourist expenditure to reach RM21.4 billion, compared with RM18.3 billion last year.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi said per capita expenditure also went up by 13.8 per cent from RM2,813.1 last year to RM3,201.8 this year.
The highest per capita expenditure came from Saudi Arabia at RM11,069, followed by United Kingdom at RM5,212; India at RM4,712.6; and the United States at RM4,506.2, he said.
“The highest tourist expenditure recorded based on distance is Singapore at RM6.2 billion for the short-haul market; China at RM3.7 billion for the medium-haul market and United Kingdom at RM483.6 million for the long-haul market,” Mohamaddin said at a briefing on the Tourism Performance Report between January and March 2019.
Also present were the ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Isham Ishak and Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Musa Yusof.
Mohamaddin said tourist arrivals had increased by 2.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year, with a total of 6,696,230 tourists compared with 6,520,218 in the same period last year.
He said Malaysia welcomed 2.195 million tourists in January, 2.165 million in February and 2.334 million in March.
For the short-haul, he said Asean maintained the lead and the biggest contributor of international tourist arrivals to Malaysia with a share of 68.3 per cent, reflecting a 1.9 per cent increase to 4.576 million tourists in the first quarter of this year.
“The increase was fueled by positive arrival growth from markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“The share for the medium-haul market during the first quarter of 2019 was 21.9 per cent with 8.6 per cent increase of arrivals to 1.466 million tourists, driven mainly by China, Korea, Japan, India and Pakistan growth.”
The long-haul market recorded a 9.7 per cent share, down by 3.6 per cent with arrivals of 652,032 tourists in the first quarter of this year.
“The average length of stay in Malaysia for the first quarter of 2019 saw an improvement of 1.8 nights from 4.2 nights in 2018 to 6.0 nights in 2019.”
The minister said tourists from Saudi Arabia recorded an average stay of 10.1 nights; France (8.9 nights); Germany (8.5 night); and United Kingdom (8.5 nights).
To a question on the slight drop of tourist arrivals from Singapore at 1.5 per cent from 2.667 million in the first quarter of 2018 to 2.626 million for the same period this year, Isham attributed it to the entry point system issue at the Johor Causeway, which was expected to be resolved by October.
“After October, things will improve and will be better by 2020,” he said.
On the differences between Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) and AirAsia Group Bhd, Mohamaddin said it would not affect the tourism industry and described it as “internal affairs”.
In the Tourism Performance Report between January and March 2019, it stated that most tourists engaged in shopping activities at 87.4 per cent followed by sightseeing in the cities at 87 per cent; visiting island beaches (48.7 per cent); swimming activities (41.7 per cent); visiting museums (29 per cent); visiting historical places (28.3 per cent); snorkeling (27.3 per cent); visiting villages (26.5 per cent), and visiting theme parks at 22 per cent.
The most popular shopping items bought by tourists are handicraft and souvenirs at 82.3 per cent; foodstuff (81.9 per cent); apparel/clothes (79.3 per cent; cosmetics (51.9 per cent); household goods (49.8 per cent); shoes (44.2 per cent); fragrance (34.3 per cent and chocolates (31 per cent).
It listed Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya as the most popular destinations visited by tourists followed by Johor, Melaka, Sabah, Pahang, Sarawak, Penang and Kedah.