KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Where do most of Malaysia’s tourists come from and who among them spend the most when they are here?
Here’s what the latest available data online from Tourism Malaysia and Malay Mail’s own calculations reveal:
The Top 20 lists
Did you know that these 20 countries or places contribute to around 96 per cent of the total overseas visitors to Malaysia in 2019, 2024 and 2025?
For example, look at the top three countries: Singapore (nearly 18.86 million visitors in 2024, nearly 21.08 million in 2025); China (3.7 million in 2024, 4.66 million in 2025); and Indonesia (nearly 4.15 million in 2024, over 4.26 million in 2025).
And are visitors from these top 20 places the biggest spenders in Malaysia?
Yes, mostly.
Let’s zoom in to 2024, when Malaysia recorded RM106.78 billion in international visitors’ spending, with the top 20 countries in the list below contributing to nearly RM 98.36 billion or 92 per cent of this figure.
While most of the top-spending countries in 2024 are also the ones with the highest number of visitors to Malaysia, there are some exceptions: Pakistan, Canada and the Netherlands are ranked 21st to 23rd in visitor numbers but are ranked 18th to 20th in terms of visitor spending.
Missing from the list of the top 20 big spenders in 2024 are the Others category, Bangladesh and Myanmar (which were ranked 11th, 18th and 19th in the top 20 visitors’ arrivals list).
More than 70 per cent of international visitors’ total spending in Malaysia in 2024 went to these three things: Shopping, accommodation, and food and beverage.
Spot the pattern (Hint: Asean, China, India)
If you look at 2024 figures, Asean (specifically the six countries that are in the top 20 spenders’ list), China and India collectively contributed RM80.58 billion or around 75 per cent of total international visitors’ spending in Malaysia.
The rest in the top 20 list also contributed a significant slice of the pie with visitors spending RM17.77 billion or around 16 per cent of Malaysia’s total international visitors spending.
Others countries in the list are Australia, Pakistan, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, US, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, UK, France, and Germany.
After bouncing back from the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia recorded even higher numbers of international visitors when compared to before the pandemic.
Malaysia had 37.96 million overseas visitors in 2024, and more than 42.19 million in 2025.
Asean, China and India again accounted for most of these international visitors at around 87 per cent for both years, with a collective 33.28 million (2024) and 36.95 million (2025).
Europe contributed 2.97 per cent or 1.13 million visitors (2024) and 3.04 per cent or 1.28 million (2025).
Middle East nations accounted for 0.46 per cent (2024) and 0.39 per cent (2025).
For this calculation by Malay Mail, seven countries were included for the Middle East region (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, UAE, Qatar), which contributed 175,192 visitors in 2024 and 163,366 visitors in 2025.
This may explain why the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) believes the Visit Malaysia Year 2026 target of 47 million international visitors still remains achievable at this point, despite the ongoing Iran war.
The Middle East or West Asia conflict has resulted in multiple flight cancellations which has disrupted global travel, as airports there serve as key transit hubs connecting the rest of the world to Asia.
While MATTA acknowledged a probable drop in tourists from Europe and the Middle East in the coming months, it said demand for travel from other regions is expected to be resilient and expected to cushion any slowdown from Europe and the Middle East.
MATTA president Nigel Wong told Malay Mail that Malaysia continues to benefit from strong regional connectivity, and specifically cited Asean, China and India.
“Asean remains a key source market, while China is showing steady recovery with increasing flight capacity. India is also emerging as a high-potential market, contributing positively in terms of visitor numbers and spending,” he said.
Bonus: What about Cuti-Cuti Malaysia trends?
Let’s have a quick look at Malaysians’ travel within the country, based on the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DOSM) data.
There was healthy demand for local travel in the last two years, with Malaysia’s number of domestic visitors again surpassing pre-pandemic levels: growing from 260.1 million in 2024 to 290.1 million in 2025.
These domestic visitors’ figures include domestic tourists or those who had overnight stays in Malaysia, which also grew from 93.3 million in 2024 to 106.5 million in 2025.
In terms of spending, total domestic tourism expenditure in Malaysia increased from RM106.7 billion in 2024 to RM121 billion in 2025.
While international tourists’ arrivals in Malaysia were three to four times fewer than domestic tourists, the data seems to suggest that overseas tourists spend more for their travels here as their total spending only lagged slightly behind local tourists.
International tourists totalling 20.14 million and 25.02 million visited Malaysia in 2023 and 2024 with total spending of RM71.3 billion and RM102.2 billion for those years.
The total spending by international tourists was just RM13.6 billion and RM4.5 billion less than the total spending by 79.6 million and 93.3 million local visitors for the same years.
