Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said RM40.4 billion in domestic tourism spending was recorded last year compared to RM103.2 billion in 2019, a 60.8% decrease.

Domestic visitor numbers dropped by 44.9% from 239.1 million in 2019 to 131.7 million in 2020.

He said this was the first decline since 2008 when the department began compiling domestic tourism statistics, citing the drop in numbers to various movement control orders (MCO) implemented amid the pandemic.

“The low performance for domestic tourism expenditure was driven by the decrease in the total expenditure by tourists and excursionists at -65.9% and -51.1% respectively, in line with the negative growth in the volume of excursionists (-44.7%) and tourists (-45.4%).

“In terms of the volume of total tourism trips, domestic visitors undertook 147 million trips within the country, declining by 55.8% against 2019,” he said in a statement.

Shopping made up the bulk of total expenditure from domestic tourists at 52.6%, followed by food and beverage (18.6%) and automotive fuel (15%).

“The percentage of trips for shopping purposes at 42.3% exceeded the share of trips for visiting relatives and friends at 32%, for the first time since 2008. This was followed by trips for holiday/leisure/relaxation, at 16.9%.”

Selangor recorded the most domestic tourists last year with 19.7 million visitors, followed by Perak (13.2 million), Kuala Lumpur (12.4 million), Sabah (10.3 million) and Kedah (10.1 million).