PUTRAJAYA: International tourist arrivals in the first half of 2026 rose a modest 2.5% compared to the same period in 2025 despite geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, says Datuk Sri Tiong King Sing.
The Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister said figures from Tourism Malaysia and the Immigration Department showed Malaysia received 21,118,039 international travellers between January and June 2026.
He said this was an increase of 514,958 arrivals compared to 20,603,081 recorded in the same period in 2025.
Tiong said the arrivals from 26 of Malaysia's 50 major international source markets showed a decline while the rest recorded an increase.
"This is the lowest growth rate for this period since the post-pandemic recovery began mainly because geopolitical tensions in the Middle East disrupted international flight operations and, in turn, outbound travel markets worldwide," he said in a statement on Monday (Aug 24) issued with his first half of 2026 progress report.
Tiong said the unrest in the Middle East also led to the cancellation of 3,428 or about 3.7% out of the 91,486 scheduled international flights to Malaysia.
"The impact of the Middle East conflict is clearly reflected in flight operations. Just nine flights were cancelled in February but the figure rose to more than 300 in March, then nearly 1,000 in April and 1,419 international flights to Malaysia in June.
"The sharpest decline was seen in flights from the Middle East where seat capacity fell from more than one million seats in the first six months of last year to 806,532 in the first half of this year.
"This included Europe-bound flights transiting through the Middle East where seat capacity decreased by more than 20% compared with the same period last year," he said.
He said travellers from France rose but arrivals from Britain and Germany decreased.
Tiong said Europe and the Middle East were the two markets hardest hit by the conflict.
"In Europe, France was the only one of the three main source markets to record growth while arrivals from Britain and Germany both fell. Germany, in particular, recorded negative growth for the first time since the tourism market began recovering after the pandemic," he said.
Tiong revealed that there was an increase in travellers from Turkiye, Russia, Spain and Poland rose while arrivals from Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt showed the highest decline.
"The conflict in the Middle East also drove up international fuel prices, raising the cost of outbound travel and affecting travel from other regions, including India in South Asia, as well as Taipei and South Korea. Fortunately, arrivals from Malaysia's key source markets in South-East Asia including Singapore and the Philippines as well as from China, Central Asia, Oceania and North America continued to grow," he said.
Tiong said the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry had adjusted its market strategy in response to changing global conditions with a stronger focus on Asian markets, particularly South-East Asia and Northeast Asia.
He added that the Visit Malaysia programme had been extended to 2027 to maintain the momentum of the tourism industry's growth.
