.jpg "Travellers to Langkawi are pictured arriving at KLIA2, Sepang September 16, 2021. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Ahmad Zamzahurinn")
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said domestic tourist arrivals and revenue fell in all states in 2020 versus the previous year.
In its “Performance of Domestic Tourism By State, 2020” report published today, the department attributed the declines to the lockdowns imposed to control the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among states and federal territories, the three that managed to generate the most domestic tourism receipts were Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak.
Selangor’s domestic visitor expenditure for 2020 amounted to RM7.1 billion, or 52.8 per cent less than in 2019.
Kuala Lumpur recorded RM5.3 billion, which was a decrease of 57.8 per cent, while Sarawak’s receipts fell by 61 per cent to RM3.4 billion.
Other states that recorded notable decline were Perak with RM3.3 billion (61.5 per cent drop) and Pahang with RM2.7 billion (64.1 per cent drop).
In terms of domestic visitor arrivals, Selangor again topped the list, followed by Perak and Kuala Lumpur.
Selangor recorded 19.7 million visitors, a drop of 41.3 per cent compared to the previous year.
Perak and Kuala Lumpur’s visitors fell by 37.5 per cent and 45.1 per cent respectively, to 13.2 million and 12.4 million.
Sabah and Kedah also recorded a significant decline in visitors, registering 10.3 million (53.1 per cent drop) and 10.1 million (31.8 per cent drop) domestic visitors in 2020.
The state where visitors stayed the longest was Sarawak, with an average length of stay of 2.55 days. This was followed by Perlis (2.45 days) and Terengganu (2.06 days).
