Will Visit Malaysia 2026 be a Resounding Success?

 

The best measures of success for inbound tourism are arrival figures and tourism receipts. Arrivals are recorded at international checkpoints nationwide, where entries and exits can be by land, air or sea. 

Foreigners that arrived and exited the same day are termed excursionists, and those that stayed for at least one night in our country are tourists. Although all foreigners are welcome, visitors who stay longer naturally contribute more to our tourism receipts.

 

Source: https://www.malaysia.travel/page/visit-malaysia-2026

Take last year for example, 25 million foreign tourists spent RM102.2 bil in Malaysia, whereas 13 million foreign excursionists spent only RM4.5 bil. Combined, the 38 million foreign visitors contributed RM106.7 bil in 2024. 

So, what is the targeted number of visitor and tourist arrivals for Visit Malaysia 2026 (VM2026)? The numbers have kept changing, partly because reporters and editors kept interchanging visitors and tourists freely when reporting arrival figures, which is a grave error for technical terms with distinct definitions. 

Early this year on January 6 at the launch of VM2026 at Hangar 6 of MAB Engineering Complex in Sepang officiated by the Prime Minister, the target then was to welcome 35.6 million tourists and generate RM147.1 bil in tourism receipts. 

In April, Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Manoharan Periasamy said it is aiming for 45 million visitor arrivals. Later in September, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government is targeting 43 million foreign visitors this year and 47 million in 2026. 

The latest reported figures on ‘tourist’ arrivals to Malaysia is until August at 28,242,804, averaging 3,549,350 a month or 42,364,206 a year. Obviously, the figures are for visitor arrivals, not tourist arrivals as wrongly reported by a local English daily and carried by a Singapore newspaper. The ‘Visitor Performance to Malaysia’ posted by Tourism Malaysia is still until April. Until it is updated to August, the breakdown for visitor arrivals into tourists and excursionists is still unknown to the public. Likewise, there has been no disclosure on the number of foreign tourists and excursionists targeted for VM2026. 

Be that as it may, will VM2026 be a resounding success? Yes, hopefully, barring circumstances that are beyond our control, such as another pandemic, or war within the Asean region, or political upheaval in our country What other things could go wrong? The immigration officers’ lack of courtesy; the aerotrain breaks down; the airlines are not prepared for the influx; rude taxi drivers; translators in tour buses are incompetent; missing persons off Sabah; and a host of other things. So, try to sort those items we can control and leave the rest to fate or takdir? 

In the end, without connectivity, convenience, comfort and courtesy, natural attractions or man-made events, however good they may be, would not draw many other fellow human beings to Malaysia.

 

Reference:

Will Visit Malaysia 2026 be a resounding success? Well, yes but only if…, YS Chan, Focus Malaysia, 10 October 2025