KUCHING: Malaysia experienced its first slump in tourist arrivals over decades, with a 9.4 percent drop in the first six months of the year.
The country recorded 12,567,300 tourists from January to June this year compared to 13,875,046 in the same period last year.
Sarawak Tourism Minister Datuk Abang Johari Tun Openg said among the reasons contributed to the drop were the knock-on effects of economic downturn, incidents involving the aviation sector and natural calamities.
The down trend has also affected Sarawak whereby the state only received 3,746,933 visitors from January to October, with tourism receipt of RM8.24 billion, indicated a drop of 4.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
When delivering his winding-up speech at the state legislative assembly here, Johari said Asean countries remained as the top visited, followed by United Kingdom, China and Australia.
"However, based on the past trend of the average arrivals for the month of November to
December, the ministry is anticipating 4.8 million arrivals into Sarawak this year," he added.