THE tourism sector contributed RM41.69 billion to the national coffers in the first six months of the year, up 6.8% from the same period in 2018.

From January to June, 13.35 million tourist arrivals were recorded, led by Singaporeans at five million, followed by Indonesians (1.8 million), Chinese (1.5 million) and Thais (990,565).

“In the first half of 2018, tourism revenue was recorded at RM39 billion. For the same period this year, it was RM41.69 billion, an increase of 6.8%,” said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi in Putrajaya morning.

He said Asean travellers formed the bulk of arrivals at 70%.

“Singapore, Indonesia and China continued to be the top three countries… Others were Thailand, Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Japan and South Korea.”

The Chinese New Year celebration in February and Singapore’s school holidays the following month contributed to the figure, he added.

He said the highest expenditure per capita was by Saudi Arabian visitors at RM11,379, with tourists from the UK a distant second at RM5,241, followed by travellers from Canada, China and the US at RM4,500.

Mohamaddin said he is targeting a total of 28.1 billion arrivals this year with a tourism expenditure of RM92.2 billion. – August 23, 2019.