RM8.98 bln in tourism receipts expected this year

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Abdul Karim holds up his points for his winding-up speech.

KUCHING: Sarawak is targeting five million tourist arrivals and expecting RM8.98 billion in tourism receipts this year.

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the tourist arrival figure stood at 1.67 million as of April this year.

“As of Jan to April this year, visitor arrival figures stood at 1.67 million, indicating an increase of 17.26 per cent as compared to the corresponding period in 2016,” he said in his winding up speech in the august House today.

Last year, Karim said the state received 4.66 million visitors, bringing in an estimated tourist receipt of RM8.37 billion.

Such arrival figures, he added, showed an increase of 3.19 per cent against that of 2015.

The minister said Malaysia received 26.8 million tourists last year, marking an increase of four per cent in arrivals growth and generating an estimated RM82.1 billion in tourist receipts.

“ASEAN markets continue to contribute largely to the arrivals from Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Thailand,” added Karim.

He said the global tourism sector continued to show positive growth with the global international tourist arrivals growing by 3.9 per cent last year.

He added that a total of 1.23 billion international tourists were registered worldwide last year, indicating 48 million more tourists as compared to 2015.