Published on : Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Maybank Kim Eng explains in a report published last week that it anticipates more Chinese to visit Malaysia.
As Chinese visitors spend more than others, the research house expects more inbound Chinese visitors in 2019 and will moderate the unfavorable effect of fewer Singaporean visitors on the Malaysian tourism industry.
Even though Malaysia’s tourist arrivals went down 0.4 percent year-on-year in general to 25.83 million last year, Chinese inbound tourists surged 29 percent to 2.94 million.
As Malaysia’s tourism receipts increased 2.44 percent annually to 84.1 billion ringgit ($20.3 billion), Chinese tourist expenditure rushed 35.9 percent to 12.3 billion ringgit.
“The improving tourism receipts are partially due to more Chinese visitors to Malaysia,” says Maybank Kim Eng, adding that the average Chinese visitor to Malaysia spent 4,200 ringgit in 2018, more than any other major sources of visitors.
Also, the research house sees room for expansion as the average Chinese visitor to Thailand spends 65 percent more than they spend in Malaysia.
The report at the same time notes that China at present is the world’s top tourism spender, spending more than the United States and Germany combined.
Tags: Chinese tourists, Malaysia tourism