Tourist arrivals to Malaysia 2014-2023

In 2023, there were approximately 20 million tourist arrivals in Malaysia, an increase from around ten million in the previous year. The country finally reopened its border in April 2022, after two years of travel restrictions which severely impacted the number of tourists coming to the country.

The importance of tourism industry

Tourism is an important economic sector in Malaysia, contributing around 102 billion Malaysian ringgit to its GDP before the pandemic hit. This sector also provided employment to about 3.6 million Malaysian residents and earned Malaysia around 71 billion Malaysian ringgit in tourism receipts in 2023.

Tourism industry in recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic had adversely affected the global tourism industry. As part of their efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, countries around the world introduced restrictions on inbound as well as outbound travel. Malaysia had been especially hard hit, as it imposed travel restrictions for inbound visitors from China, its second-largest inbound tourism market, as early as the end of January. Now the borders have been reopened, the country can expect a surge of Chinese tourists to help the industry recover to its pre-pandemic state.