Over 189 million domestic visitors recorded last year

KUALA LUMPUR: The 189.3 million domestic visitors recorded last year was an increase of seven per cent compared with 176.9 million visitors registered in 2015.

Based on the Domestic Tourism Survey 2016 handled by the Statistics Department, it was found that the five main objectives of domestic visitors are visiting relatives and friends (43.6 per cent), shopping ( 33.1 per cent), vacation, leisure and rest (11.4 per cent), entertainment, attending special events and sports (four per cent) and for medical care and personal care (three per cent).

Selangor recorded the highest number of visitors with 24 million, followed by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Perak each recording 16.8 million, Sabah (16.5 million) and Sarawak (16.3 million), the department said in a statement here yesterday.

The department also found that domestic visitor expenditure increased by 0.2 per cent to RM74,773 million in 2016 compared to RM67,842 million in the previous year.

“This was attributed to increased spending by daily visitors and tourists, each registering a growth of 11.8 per cent and 9.4 per cent,” the statement said.

The Statistics Department also found that shopping remained the largest component of domestic tourism expenditure at 35.3 per cent.

This was followed by vehicle fuel (16 per cent), food and drinks (13.8 per cent), expenditure by households visited (11.1 per cent), accommodation (8.8 per cent), transport ( 6.5 per cent), other activities (5.7 per cent) as well as entrance fee package and tickets (2.8 per cent).