Skip page header and navigation

Malaysia

See the latest market data for Malaysia – including traveller visits and spend, length of stay, behaviours and preferences.

Malaysia

Travellers from Malaysia made 14.5 million outbound visits in 2019, with a total international tourism expenditure of US$12.4 billion.

In 2022, the UK welcomed 116,503 visits from Malaysia. During the travellers’ visits, their total expenditure was £162.37 million, with an average spend of £1,394 per person.

Discover visitor behaviour, travel trade insights, detailed data visualisations for this market – and more. The statistics in this market report are collated from a range of sources such as the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as well as sponsored questions and our own research. For further details, see How we source this information.

Explore the inbound data in full

Use our visualisations to see data from this market in greater depth and clarity. Compare annual statistics, and filter by age group, gender, trip duration and more. Includes seasonality, trip purpose and regional spread of visitors to UK destinations. This data is based on the International Passenger Survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Please click on the button below and select the country you are interested in.

Global context

Top-level statistics relating to the population, GDP, tourism expenditure and popular destinations for this market. For greater detail on inbound tourism flows from this market to the UK, see our data visualisations.

Measure

2019

International tourism expenditure (US$bn)

12.4

Global rank for international tourism expenditure

27

Number of outbound visits (m)

14.5

Most visited destination

Thailand

Most visited destination in Western Europe

United Kingdom

Key demographic and economic data

Measure

2023

Population (m)

34.4

GDP per capita PPP (US$)

34,865

Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)

4.0

Annual GDP growth (%)

2.6

Access to Britain from Malaysia

The key routes and transport modes that connect this market with the UK.

Measure

2023

Weekly aircraft departures

14

Weekly seat capacity

4,014

Airports with direct routes in Malaysia

1

Airports with direct routes in Britain

1

  • Malaysia Airlines serves the direct route for all departing seats from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow in 2023.

  • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 66% reduction in direct seat capacity from Malaysia to the UK in 2020. In 2021 it was 90% behind pre-COVID levels and in 2022 direct seat capacity was 41% behind pre-pandemic levels.

  • In 2023, direct seat capacity is set to recover to 71% of pre-pandemic (2019) levels.

  • The current reduced rate of Air Passenger Duty for visitors departing Britain for Malaysia is £91.

Further resources

PDF

Southeast Asia Market Profile

Southeast Asia Market Profile

Download (1.74 MB)
PDF

Malaysia Aviation Profile


Malaysia Aviation Profile

Download (150.76 KB)

How we source this information

We work with a number of data sources to provide a rich and insightful picture of our key inbound source markets. This includes, but is not limited to, data provided by Oxford Economics, the UNWTO, Apex, Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index and from our own surveys and ad-hoc research. The largest share of the data come from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) by the ONS.

Visit our About the International Passenger Survey page for more information on how the data is collected and analysed. 

Discover more

See the latest market data for Singapore – including traveller visits and spend, length of stay, behaviours and preferences.

Image flag

Singapore

See the latest market data for Thailand – including traveller visits and spend, length of stay, behaviours and preferences.

Image flag

Thailand

See the latest market data for Australia – including traveller visits and spend, length of stay, behaviours and preferences.

Image flag

Australia