Visitors from the Sultanate made the top 10 markets to Malaysia’s tourism in the first quarter of this year, Tourism Malaysia said in a statement on Tuesday.
Malaysia’s tourism achievements for the first quarter of 2024 are promising, where a significant influx of foreign tourists, reaching 5.8 million arrivals, was observed from January to March.
The top markets were Australia, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and the United Kingdom (UK).
This marks a remarkable growth of 32.5 per cent compared to the previous year’s 4.3 million, added the statement.
Tourism Malaysia will continue to empower its branding through advertising campaigns, influencer marketing, and compelling content creation across digital (70 per cent) and traditional (30 per cent) media platforms.
The agency will also establish strategic partnerships with airlines, online travel agents (OTAs), and land/sea border operators of neighbouring countries to enhance tourist arrivals.
Key target markets are prioritised into three tiers, led by first-level priorities such as Australia, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The second-level priorities include South Korea, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the UK, followed by third-level priorities comprising Taipei and Germany. Apart from traditional markets such as Brunei, Thailand and Singapore, the focus is also highlighted on emerging markets like Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Visitors from Brunei were the top five tourist arrivals for Malaysia with 811,833 from January till December last year, while visitors from the Sultanate were the fourth highest in terms of excursionist arrivals with 304, 378 in the same year. – Azlan Othman
