Malaysia attracts 2.9 mln Chinese tourists in 2018

Tourist arrivals from China to Malaysia rose 28.9 percent year-on-year to 2.9 million in 2018, official data showed Wednesday.

According to data from Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board, the number of tourist arrivals from China ranked third, after those of Singapore and Indonesia.

However, Malaysia missed its overall 2018 tourism target, as its foreign tourists arrivals were flat at 25.8 million, 0.5 percent lower than the 25.9 million foreign arrivals in 2017.

The tourism revenue stood at and 84.1 billion ringgit (about 20.7 billion U.S. dollars), 2.4 percent higher than 82.1 billion ringgit in the previous year.

Arrivals from other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continued to dominate, accounted for 70.1 percent of total foreign visitors.

Singapore remained Malaysia's top tourist arrival country, but the figure fell 14.7 percent year-on-year to 10.6 million.

Arrivals from Indonesia and Thailand rose 17.2 percent and 4.3 percent respectively to 3.3 million and 1.9 million.

Meanwhile, inbound tourist per capita expenditure grew 2.9 percent year-on-year to 3,257 ringgit ($800) last year. Per capita expenditure of Chinese tourists stood at 4,179 ringgit ($1,027).

Malaysian government earlier revised down its tourism revenues target to 84.9 billion ringgit and 92.2 billion ringgit for 2018 and 2019, from 134 billion ringgit and 151 billion ringgit, respectively.

The government also lowered its foreign tourist targets to 26.4 million and 28.1 million for 2018 and 2019, respectively, from the previous targets of 33.1 million and 34.5 million.