Batu Caves, a popular tourist attraction in Selangor

Tourism in Malaysia is a major industry and contributor to the Malaysian economy. Malaysia was once ranked 9th in the world for tourist arrivals.[1] The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 ranks Malaysia 25th out of 141 countries overall.

In an effort to diversify the economy and make Malaysia's economy less dependent on exports, the government pushed to increase tourism in Malaysia. As a result, tourism has become Malaysia's third largest source of foreign exchange income,[2] and accounted for 7% of Malaysia's economy as of 2005.[3]

The government agency in charge of promoting tourism in Malaysia is Tourism Malaysia or the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB). On 20 May 1987, the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism (MOCAT) was established and TDC moved to this new ministry. TDC existed from 1972 to 1992, when it became the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB), through the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board Act, 1992.

In 1999, Malaysia launched a worldwide marketing campaign called "Malaysia, Truly Asia" which was largely successful and brought in over 7.4 million tourists.[4] The extra revenue generated by tourism helped the country's economy during the economic crisis of 2008.[5]

Types of tourism

Medical tourism

Medical tourism is popular in Malaysia, with the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council reporting an arrival of 641,000 foreign patients in 2011, 728,800 in 2012, 881,000 in 2013 and 882,000 in 2014.[6] Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, a government agency with the aim of promoting medical tourism, was launched in 2009 as an initiative by the Ministry of Health.[7]

Tourist arrivals

Tourist arrivals

In 2016, Malaysia recorded 26,757,392 tourist arrivals, a growth of 4.0% compared to 25,721,251 in 2015. The table lists the top 15 arrivals to Malaysia by their origin countries.

—Denotes that the country was not within the top 15 arrivals for that year
Foreign tourist arrivals in Malaysia
Country Visitors (9/2023) Visitors (2022) Visitors (2021)[8] Visitors (2020)[9] Visitors (2019)[10] Visitors (2018)[11] Visitors (2017)[12] Visitors (2016)[13] Visitors (2015)[14]
 Singapore 5,895,152 5,222,991 16,308 1,545,255 10,163,882 10,615,986 12,441,713 13,272,961 12,930,754
 Indonesia 2,227,991 1,481,739 11,025 711,723 3,623,277 3,277,689 2,796,570 3,049,964 2,788,033
 Thailand 1,153,630 715,528 59,607 394,413 1,884,306 1,914,692 1,836,522 1,780,800 1,343,569
 China 1,037,600 211,363 7,701 405,149 3,114,257 2,944,133 2,281,666 2,124,942 1,677,163
 Brunei 574,856 301,757 773 136,020 1,216,123 1,382,031 1,660,506 1,391,016
 India 472,858 324,548 3,916 155,883 735,309 600,311 552,739 638,578 722,141
 South Korea 301,006 146,384 3,028 119,750 673,065 616,783 484,528 444,439 421,161
 Vietnam 272,852 173,763 583 64,184 400,346 375,578 248,927 216,877 229,926
 Philippines 239,978 159,442 2,317 66,051 421,908 396,062 370,559 417,446 554,917
 Australia 238,987 152,265 1,321 72,680 368,271 351,500 351,232 377,727 486,948
 Taiwan 213,180 48,132 563 60,090 382,916 383,922 332,927 300,861 283,224
 United Kingdom 198,863 134,667 2,676 63,868 346,485 361,335 358,818 400,269 401,019
 Japan 166,124 83,309 3,114 74,383 424,694 394,540 392,777 413,768 483,569
 United States 163,443 108,141 2,030 48,810 269,928 253,384 198,203 217,075 237,768
 Bangladesh 115,328 59,033 1,509 17,634 179,000 150,053 111,836 114,607 147,152
 Germany 91,652 57,780 824 27,458 130,221 128,895 109,816 130,276 144,910
 France 89,332 55,087 843 28,237 141,661 139,408 131,668 134,257 151,474
 Russia 85,134 33,003 399 28,694 79,984 72,785 67,564 50,893 55,263
 Pakistan 82,579 60,535 2,043 17,777 105,757 74,458 53,453 58,388 69,112
 Myanmar 59,949 36,765 377 9,745 46,257 38,513 42,314 49,175 66,553
 Cambodia 54,894 39,823 250 16,548 97,097 90,113 42,004 61,844 75,059
 Netherlands 53,016 31,070 466 14,486 82,110 81,651 75,885 72,200 84,584
 Canada 50,809 30,656 471 16,631 87,568 84,705 67,056 72,337 79,557
 Sri Lanka 39,213 24,906 385 8,142 26,058 28,376 43,738 33,340 51,337
 Italy 38,509 18,866 300 8,971 54,710 52,055 44,638 42,747 51,946
 Saudi Arabia 38,143 35,980 687 23,390 121,444 112,263 100,549 123,878 99,754
 Spain 30,710 20,474 147 6,367 43,616 42,267 35,149 28,018 36,692
 New Zealand 29,831 18,238 196 8,794 50,140 50,698 55,923 53,352 60,846
 Egypt 14,806 11,117 652 6,204 29,831 27,909 23,760 30,231 25,637
   Nepal 13,135 11,379 198 5,067 20,437 19,914 20,553 60,476 93,159
Grand Total 14,467,037 10,074,964134,7284,332,72226,100,78425,832,35425,948,45926,757,39225,721,251

Destinations and attractions

Beside the main cities, there other town and places in Malaysia offer some special tourist attraction. Such as in Taiping for their landscape and local attraction. Teluk Intan for their Leaning tower. Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands, Bukit Tinggi in Pahang and Kundasang in Sabah for a cool climate. Muar in Johor is famous for its food. Miri is the official tourism-city and resort city of Sarawak and Sibu in Sarawak is famous for its landscape and parks.

Islands and beaches

Teluk Cempedak Beach, Kuantan
South Beach, Perhentian Besar

Malaysia has several tropical islands. Some of the islands in Malaysia are:

National parks and nature reserves

Other places of interest

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://travel-to-malaysia.com/malaysia-is-ninth-most-visited-in-the-world-in-unwto-list/
  2. ↑ Munan, Heidi. Malaysia. New York: Benchmark Books, 2002. pp. 28.
  3. ↑ "M'sia is ninth most visited in the world in UNWTO list". The Star. 7 February 2012. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  4. ↑ Munan, Heidi. Malaysia. New York: Benchmark Books, 2002. pp. 29.
  5. ↑ Warshaw, Steven, and A. J. Tudisco. Southeast Asia Emerges; a Concise History of Southeast Asia from Its Origin to the Present. [Berkeley, Calif.]: Diablo, 1975. Print. pp. 77.
  6. ↑ "Statistics". Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council. Archived from the original on 3 August 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "Who we are". Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  8. ↑ "Top 45 Tourist Arrivals (2021)" (PDF). Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  9. ↑ "Top 45 Tourist Arrivals (2020)" (PDF). Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  10. ↑ "Top 45 Tourist Arrivals (2019)" (PDF). Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  11. ↑ "Top 45 Tourist Arrivals (2018)" (PDF). Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  12. ↑ "Top 45 Tourist Arrivals (2017)" (PDF). Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  13. ↑ "Top 45 Tourist Arrivals (2016)" (PDF). Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "Top 45 Tourist Arrivals (2015)" (PDF). Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  15. ↑ Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary (Temerloh) Archived 18 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Tourism Pahang.
  16. ↑ Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, Endemic Guides.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Malaysia.
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