Domestic tourism in Malaysia grew 11.8% to 216 million visitors, generating RM88.4 billion in spending for the first nine months of 2025.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s domestic tourism recorded a strong performance in the first nine months of 2025.
A total of 216 million domestic visitors generated spending of RM88.4 billion during the period.
This represents increases of 11.8% and 13.7%, respectively, compared with the same period last year.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the positive momentum was in line with the performance of tourism-related industries.
He noted that retail sales of automotive fuel rose by 6.3% year-on-year, reflecting sustained domestic travel activity.
“This positive momentum was further supported by an 11.4% increase in domestic airport arrivals,” he said in a statement.
Mohd Uzir said this indicates sustained mobility and travel demand among Malaysians.
In the accommodation sub-sector, revenue rose by 14.3% year-on-year.
Occupancy rates were recorded at 68.8% for five-star hotels, 69.9% for three-star hotels and 62.8% for four-star hotels.
By location, hotel occupancy rates in urban areas increased by 1.2 percentage points to 64%.
Mohd Uzir said domestic tourism remains one of the main pillars of the national economy.
Growth in the sector is expected to continue, further strengthening its contribution to the country’s overall economic health.
In a related development, he said Malaysia has ranked first globally in the biennial Open Data Inventory 2024/25 report.
The country surpassed 198 other countries in the report released by Open Data Watch.
He added that the OpenDOSM NextGen platform provides a comprehensive data catalogue and visualisation tools.
The platform can be accessed via the open.dosm.gov.my portal to facilitate data analysis by users.
