www.asia-daily.com
Tourist arrivals in Malaysia in April more than doubled from the same month last year, backed by a strong recovery in visitors from neighbouring Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, government statistics show.
Arrivals rose to 1.27 million in April from just 459,372 last year, when the industry was battered by the double whammy of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Iraq war.
The total number of tourists in 2003 dipped to 10.5 million from 13.3 million the previous year, according to published figures.
Last month, Singaporean visitors topped the list at 809,640, making-up 63.9% of the total, along with 135,805 Thais, up 75.9%, and 51,718 Indonesians.
Hong Kong and China, countries which were badly-hit by the Sars outbreak in 2003, also boosted tourist arrivals last month, with Hong Kong visitors up 405.7% compared to last year.
"The very positive reaction was mainly due to pent-up demand because people had deferred their travel plans throughout the whole of last year due to SARS and the Iraq war," Azrul Azwar, senior economist with MIDF Berhad, said. |