Malaysia sees 32.5% surge in foreign tourist arrivals in Q1

Tiong King Sing said Singapore, Indonesia and China are among the top 10 tourist-generating markets for Malaysia. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia welcomed 5.8 million foreign tourists from January to March this year, up by 32.5% from the 4.3 million visitors during the same period last year, says tourism, arts and culture minister Tiong King Sing.

Tiong said the top 10 tourist-generating markets for Malaysia were Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Brunei, India, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Philippines, Bernama reported.

“Besides that, from January to April 2024, Malaysia also received chartered flights from Nanjing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Xi’an, Shenyang, Nanchang and Guangzhou, totalling 22 charted flights every week from the said cities with an estimated 3,600 passengers arriving per week.

“To date, we have 15 new additional routes, including Wuhan to Kuala Lumpur, Ahmedabad to Kuala Lumpur, Incheon to Kota Kinabalu and Almaty to Kuala Lumpur,” he said in his speech at Tourism Malaysia’s networking session on the strategic direction towards Visit Malaysia Year 2026 (VMY2026) in Kuala Lumpur.

Tiong added that the 30-day visa exemption for tourists from China and India, implemented as part of the visa liberalisation plan, had also proven to boost tourist arrivals in Malaysia.

As such, Tiong said visa facilitation, improved accessibility, and flight connectivity would be key strategies to attract approximately 36 million tourist arrivals and generate an estimated RM150 billion in tourist receipts for VMY2026.

He also stressed the importance of ramping up effective marketing strategies, urging all stakeholders to leverage their strengths across various sales and marketing channels to maximise their potential.

“We also need to ensure the readiness of destinations we are targeting, including in each state, while developing new, unique tourism products and packages, as well as niche tourism development, including nature-based tourism, culture and heritage, experiential and responsible tourism,” he said.

Tiong also pledged to continue collaborating with Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, the transport ministry and local international airlines to increase flight frequencies, develop new routes and increase seat capacity, especially from key markets such as West Asia, China, India and Korea.