KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 30 – The 189.3 million domestic visitors recorded last year was an increase of seven percent 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%), shopping (33.1%), vacation, leisure, and rest (11.4%), entertainment, attending special events and sports (four percent) and for medical care and personal care (three percent).
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 today. The department also found that domestic visitor expenditure increased by 0.2% to RM74,773 million in 2016 compared to RM67,842 million in the previous year.
The statement said this was attributed to increased spending by daily visitors and tourists, each registering a growth of 11.8% and 9.4%. The Statistics Department also found that shopping remained the largest component of domestic tourism expenditure at 35.3%. This was followed by vehicle fuel (16%), food and drinks (13.8%), expenditure by households visited (11.1%), accommodation (8.8%), transport (6.5%), other activities (5.7%) as well as entrance fee package and tickets (2.8%). — Bernama
