This South-Asian country had over 10 million foreign visitors in Q1 2025, witnessing 22% increase compared to last year

Malaysia has seen a big rise in tourism. In the first quarter of this year, it welcomed 10.1 million foreign visitors, a 22% increase compared to last year.

Malaysia has beaten Thailand to emerge as the most-visited South-Asian country. Thailand is facing a tourism crisis after safety concerns rose.

In January, Chinese actor Xing Xing was kidnapped in Thailand. Recently, an Indian tourist in Thailand was attacked by a tiger while taking a selfie at a Thai wildlife spot.

For Malaysia, most tourists came from Singapore (4.9 million), followed by China (1.12 million), Indonesia (1.08 million), Thailand and Brunei. For the first time, China passed Indonesia as the second largest source of visitors, mainly due to easier visa rules, VN Express reported.

Malaysia, recently voted Asia’s most loved country by Insider Monkey, introduced a 30-day visa-free entry for Chinese and Indian citizens in December 2023, according to Bernama. It has now extended this rule until 2026.

The country also announced that Chinese tourists will be able to enter visa-free for five more years, possibly continuing until 2036.

In 2024, Malaysia saw 3.29 million visitors from China, more than the previous year. The increase in tourism shows Malaysia’s growing popularity as a travel destination in Asia, helped by friendly policies and better international ties.

Where does India stand?

The Ministry of Tourism has yet to release the full tourist arrival data for January to March 2025. However, a summary report from January 2025 reveals the numbers for the month.

In January 2025, India received 9.57 lakh foreign tourists, 13.9% lower than the number of arrivals in the same month of 2019.

The United States was the top source of tourists, making up 20.6% of the total arrivals. It was followed by the UK (11.8%), Canada (7.1%), Australia (6.4%) and Malaysia (4.7%).

Nearly half of the visitors (45.4%) came for leisure while 31.5% were part of the Indian diaspora visiting family and friends. About 9.7% arrived for business, 3.4% for medical reasons and the rest for other purposes.

Delhi welcomed the highest number of tourists (33.9%), followed by Mumbai (19.6%), Chennai (8.8%), Bangalore (7.8%) and Cochin (4.7%).