Value Added of Malaysia’s Tourism Industry attained 15.2%, meanwhile Tourism Direct contributed 6.5%

Tourism industry continued to record a better performance in 2018. The share of GVATI to GDP elevated to 15.2 per cent in 2018 as against 14.6 per cent in 2017. GVATI recorded a value of RM220.6 billion, sustained a double-digit growth of 10.0 per cent (2017: 10.3%). This growth was supported by retail trade and food & beverage with a combined share of 63.6 per cent.

GVATI and TDGDP - Value, annual percentage change and percentage share

In 2018, the share of TDGDP increased to 6.5 per cent (2017: 6.4%) of GDP. TDGDP recorded a value of RM94.5 billion from RM87.8 billion last year and posted a moderate growth of 7.6 per cent in 2018 (2017: 7.0%). Retail trade and accommodation remained as the main contributors to TDGDP with a share of 42.5 per cent and 19.4 per cent respectively.

Inbound Tourism

Inbound tourism expenditure posted a slower growth of 2.3 per cent against 5.0 per cent in the preceding year. The slowdown mirrored the growth of inbound tourist arrivals which recorded negative 0.4 per cent in 2018. The tourist receipts earned from inbound tourism expenditure constituted 96.9 per cent (RM84.9 billion) and the remaining 3.2 per cent (RM2.7 billion) received from excursionist.

Country specific tourism characteristic goods (shopping) remained as a predominant activity for tourist (share: 33.5%) besides expenditure on accommodation (share: 24.7%) and passenger transport services (share: 18.0%). These three components made up 76.2 per cent of the total inbound tourism expenditure.

Inbound tourism expenditure - Value, annual percentage change and percentage

Domestic Tourism

Domestic tourism expenditure continued to register a double-digit growth of 12.3 per cent in 2018 (2017: 10.8%). This performance was propelled by the impressive growth recorded by shopping. In terms of share, shopping remained as the largest component of domestic tourism expenditure and accounted for 42.0 per cent. The share of domestic tourism expenditure to the total internal tourism consumption expanded to 48.6 per cent in 2018 (2017: 46.2%) while the remaining 51.4 per cent from inbound tourism expenditure.

Domestic tourism expenditure - Value, annual percentage change and percentage share

Outbound tourism

Outbound tourism expenditure refers to spending by Malaysia’s residence while travelling abroad. Malaysia’s resident expenditure abroad increased to RM41.3 billion in 2018 as compared to RM38.9 billion last year with a moderate growth of 6.2 per cent (2017: 14.2%). The main component for outbound tourism expenditure were passenger transport 31.6 per cent and shopping 23.7 per cent.

Outbound tourism expenditure - Value, annual percentage change and percentage share

Employment

In 2018, employment in the tourism industry grew by 4.9 per cent (3.5 million persons) that contributed 23.5 per cent (2017: 22.9%) to the total employment. Food & beverage serving services and retail trade recorded the highest employment in the tourism industry with a share of 34.1 per cent and 33.1 per cent respectively.

Employment in the tourism industry - Number of persons, annual percentage change and percentage share

Released By:

DATO' SRI DR. MOHD UZIR MAHIDIN
CHIEF STATISTICIAN MALAYSIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MALAYSIA
 DrUzir_Mahidin  dr_uzir

27 September 2019

Contact person:

Rohaida binti Mohamad 
Public Relation Officer
Strategic Communication and International Division
Department of Statistics, Malaysia
Tel : +603-8885 7942
Fax : +603-8888 9248
Email : rohaida.mohamad[at]dosm.gov.my