Pahang Records 13.7 Mln Tourist Arrivals, With Estimated Spending Of RM12.35 Bln

KUANTAN, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- Pahang has recorded 13,743,272 tourist arrivals, with an estimated spending of RM12.35 billion last year, thus exceeding the state government's target of 13.5 million tourists.

State Unity, Tourism and Culture Committee chairman Leong Yu Man said this figure shows a positive increase of 3.87 per cent compared with the same period in 2023 of 13,231,064 tourists and an estimated spending of RM11.89 billion.

She said this number took into account tourists who stayed for at least one night and did not include day trippers, and believed tourists arrivals will be far more if statistics of these daily visitors were recorded.

“The four destinations in the state that received the highest number of tourists who stayed over were Genting Highlands (8,554,379 tourists), Kuantan (2,289,914), Cameron Highlands (1,377,732) and Temerloh (286,038).

“Additionally, we are proud of the achievement of Taman Negara which recorded an increase in visitor arrivals last year at 135,435 tourists compared to 128,592 tourists in 2023, This is the highest record, even higher than before COVID-19 and Visit Pahang Year 2017," she said. 

She said this at the Planning for Pahang Tourism 2025 press conference, here today, which was also attended by the Pahang Tourism general manager Kamaruddin Ibrahim.

Taking into account the encouraging performance of tourist arrivals to Pahang, Leong said the state government has set a target of 13.8 million tourists this year by organising various domestic and international programmes in addition to ensuring that each district has at least one tourism product to promote. 

"For now, a total of 35 tourism events have been included in the Pahang tourism event calendar  and will be added from time to time according to requests and so forth. But for 2025, Pahang Tourism will emphasise programmes such as the Malaysia International Tourism Expo Pahang which is entering its second year.

"In addition to familiarisation visits, we bring travel agencies from abroad such as Singapore, China, and India as well as local travel agencies from Selangor, Perak, Johor and other states to promote Pahang," she also said. 

Meanwhile, Kamaruddin said domestic tourists were the biggest contributors to the arrival of tourists to the state by recording 80 per cent while the rest were international tourists.

"Singaporean tourists, the most arrivals to Pahang, contribute around 60 per cent. The fact is Singaporeans are really interested in tourism products based on nature, ecotourism," he added.

-- BERNAMA