Tourism industry generates RM197.9bil GVATI in 2021, contributes 12.8% to GDP

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s tourism industry generated RM197.9 billion of "gross value-added of tourism industries” (GVATI), contributing 12.8 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, compared to 14.1 per cent in 2020, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

GVATI is the difference between total output and total intermediate consumption of the tourism industry.

DOSM said in a statement that based on the tourism subsectors' performance, almost all industries recorded a negative growth rate, except for the retail sale of automotive fuel (4.7 per cent), retail trade (4.4 per cent), and country-specific tourism services (3.4 per cent).

Retail trade remained the main contributor to the tourism industry (56.1 per cent).

Employment in the tourism industry recorded 3.52 million people in 2021, which contributed 23.4 per cent to the total employment.

Employment in this industry has recovered to 1.8 per cent from a negative 2.9 per cent in the previous year.

Additionally, Tourism Direct Gross Domestic Product (TDGDP), which has been identified as one of the main indicators to gauge the sustainability of tourism, recorded RM13.1 billion compared to RM28.4 billion in 2020, as it tumbled 53.8 per cent compared to a decrease of 72.2 per cent in 2020.

"Overall, TDGDP contributed 0.9 per cent to GDP as against 2.0 per cent in 2020.

"The three main products in TDGDP were retail trade, accommodation, and food and beverage serving services with a combined share of 73.5 per cent in 2021.

"However inbound tourism expenditure decreased 96.6 per cent to RM0.47 billion in 2021 in tandem with the decline in the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Malaysia," it said.

DOSM said the internal tourism consumption generated RM17.9 billion, which decreased by 65.8 per cent from the previous year. "Domestic tourism showed a significant performance by contributing 97.4 per cent to the total internal tourism consumption while inbound tourism recorded 2.6 per cent,” it said. - Bernama