KUALA LUMPUR: Tourists arrival to Malaysia has gone up by 4.4% in the first eight months of the year compared with the same period last year.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said this was despite the outbreak of the Influenza A(H1N1) and the global economic downturn.
From January to last month, the number of tourists to Malaysia increased to 15.38 million from 14.73 million during the same period last year.
In August alone, tourist arrivals rose by 10.4% to 2.03 million from 1.84 million last year.
“This is an encouraging figure,” said Dr Ng after launching the ministry’s 1Malaysia logo here yesterday.
“This shows that foreign visitors are visiting Malaysia although it is a challenging time now.”
She said tourists from China increased by 14.8% (104,473 people) in August alone, while visitors from Taiwan rose by 30.4% (26,032), Australia, 26.6% (42,969), Britain 16.5% (44.519) and the United States 1.4% (19,557).
Tourists from Singapore increased by 22% (1.09 million) and India by 1.3% (42,332), while visitors from Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea dropped by 5.2% (114,555), 9.9% (181,634) and 15.2% (23,305) respectively.
Dr Ng said tourists from Saudi Arabia and the UAE also decreased by 41.8% and 66.8% to 8,366 and 1,880 respectively due to the Ramadan month. But tourists from Iran increased by 47.9% to 9,470.
Although tourists from most of the popular countries increased, the occupancy rate at local hotels dropped by 3% from January to August compared with last year.
“The decrease shows that visitors are mostly staying with their friends or relatives as well as going for home stay,” Dr Ng said.
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