For years, Thailand was the undisputed king of South-East Asian tourism. Beaches, temples, street food, and the occasional international incident involving a kidnapped Chinese actor. Thailand had it all.
Malaysia, meanwhile, was perfectly happy to be a very good runner-up, quietly charming visitors with its own beaches, street food, and notably fewer diplomatic crises.
But somewhere between the nasi lemak and durian tours, something shifted. Did Malaysia actually pip Thailand to become Asean's most-visited nation in 2025?
Verdict:
TRUE
Malaysia achieved it again. For the second consecutive year, the country led Asean's tourism rankings, and this time it was far from close.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced in January 2026 that Malaysia recorded 42.2 million visitors in 2025, an 11.2% increase from the 38 million recorded in 2024 and a remarkable 20.4% higher than pre-pandemic figures from 2019.
Tourism receipts reached RM110.6bil in 2025, up from RM95.3bil in 2024, according to the Finance Ministry.
Thailand, traditionally the undisputed champion of South-East Asian tourism, finished second with 32.97 million foreign arrivals in 2025, a 7.2% year-on-year decline and the country's first annual drop in a decade outside the pandemic period.
To put that in perspective, Malaysia welcomed roughly nine million more tourists than Thailand in 2025.
Thailand's difficult year included the viral abduction of a Chinese actor near its borders, a massive earthquake in neighbouring Myanmar, severe flooding in the south and a political crisis that brought down the government. Tourism, understandably, took a hit.
Malaysia, by contrast, had a rather good year, benefiting from stronger Chinese tourist arrivals, improved flight connectivity, its chairmanship of Asean and a government that threw more than RM700mil at tourism promotion with the enthusiasm of someone who had just discovered the concept of marketing.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation noted in a mid-2025 report that Malaysia recorded 9% growth in international tourist arrivals in the first half of the year, outpacing the global average of 5% and the Asia-Pacific regional average of 6%.
HSBC, in a December 2025 research note, said Malaysia had overtaken Thailand as the most popular tourism destination in Asean as early as the first eight months of 2025, predicting arrivals would comfortably exceed 40 million for the full year.
Singapore remained Malaysia's largest source market, contributing 8.34 million visitors in the first five months of 2025 alone, a 26.5% increase over the previous year.
Now here is where it gets gloriously ironic.
While Malaysia was busy welcoming the world, Malaysians themselves were quietly doing their part to keep Thailand's tourism numbers afloat, with 4.52 million Malaysians visiting Thailand in 2025, making them Thailand's single biggest source of foreign visitors, ahead of even China.
In other words, Malaysians were simultaneously the reason Malaysia topped Asean's tourism charts and the reason Thailand did not collapse completely.
There was one caveat worth noting, however.
A tourism expert writing for a local daily raised concerns in early 2025 that some of the visitor arrival figures cited by the government included excursionists, which are day visitors who do not stay overnight, alongside actual tourists.
The distinction mattered because excursionists, many of whom crossed from Singapore or Indonesia for a few hours, spent considerably less and contributed less to the broader economy than overnight tourists.
On average, tourists in Thailand spent around RM7,000 per trip compared to roughly RM4,000 in Malaysia, according to tourism analysts cited by The Star, suggesting that while Malaysia led on volume, there was still ground to make up on visitor spending.
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid acknowledged this, saying the government's strategy aimed not only to attract more international visitors but to extend their length of stay and maximise their spending.
With Visit Malaysia 2026 in full swing and a target of 47 million tourists on the cards, Malaysia was clearly not planning to give up its new title without a fight.
Thailand, for its part, was equally determined to win it back.
Sources:
1. https://www.bernama.com/en/
5. https://www.thestar.com.my/
