Malacca gets 4.7m tourist arrivals in first four months

MALACCA: Malacca tourist arrivals in the first four months of the year has increased to 4.7 million compared to 4.3 million for the corresponding period last year.
Deputy State Exco for Tourism and River, Beach and Island Development Datuk Ghazale Muhamad said the 11.5% increase was encouraging since Malacca targeted 16.5 million tourists this year.
"Domestic visitors are the largest contributor with 3.376 million (70.71%) compared to 1.398 million for foreign tourists," he told reporters here, today.
Earlier, Ghazale attended a gathering with Malacca tourism industry players.
Also present was Tourism Promotion Division general manager Norena Jaafar.
He said the five largest contributor of foreign tourists were China (29.30%), Singapore (26.66%), Indonesia (14.76%), Taiwan (3.18%) and Japan (2.84%).
Selangor was the main contributor to the increase of domestic tourists with 518,265 or 15.34%.
In addition, to history, the tourists visited the natural attractions such as the Jasin and Gadek hot water pools.
"The state government is also willing to promote more tourism destinations in rural areas and not only those in urban areas," he added. — Bernama