PUTRAJAYA, Sept 15 — Domestic tourism in Malaysia surged 20 per cent in the second quarter of 2023 compared with the same quarter in the previous year, recording a total of 54.5 million visitors, according to a report released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) today.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement said that based on a quarter-on-quarter comparison, domestic visitors increased by 12.2 per cent from the first quarter of 2023.
He said domestic tourism expenditure for the second quarter of 2023 recorded RM21.9 billion, an increase of 23.9 per cent year-on-year, and a 13.9 per cent rise from the previous quarter.
In 2022, the total tourism expenditure recorded was RM64.1 billion.
“Overall, Malaysia’s domestic tourism performance in 2022 continued to record positive growth. There were 171.6 million domestic tourist arrivals compared to 66.0 million visitors in the previous year, an increase of 160.1 per cent,” he said.
Mohd Uzir said domestic tourism receipts in 2022 also increased 248.1 per cent to record RM64.1 billion as compared to RM18.4 billion in 2021, a positive growth after the Covid-19 pandemic.
In terms of volume and total receipts in 2022, he said Selangor registered the highest domestic tourism receipts with RM8.73 billion, followed by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak, which received RM7.73 billion and RM5.43 billion, respectively.
“Visiting relatives and friends was the main purpose of domestic overnight trips for all states except Penang and the Federal Territory of Labuan,” he said.
— Bernama
