Tourist arrivals to Malaysia 2013-2022

In 2022, there were approximately ten million tourist arrivals in Malaysia. 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 3.5 million Malaysians and residents and earned Malaysia around 86 billion Malaysian ringgit in tourism receipts.

Tourism industry in recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has 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.