PETALING JAYA, Sept 15 — Tourism Malaysia is expecting tourist expenditure to rise by eight per cent this year from RM28.1 billion recorded last year.

Its director-general, Datuk Musa Yusof, said one of the aspects that could help boost the amount of tourist expenditure is by highlighting Malaysia as a shopping destination, especially with the Year-End-Sale (YES) campaign, as shopping was the biggest share of tourist receipts in 2018.

"For tourist expenditure this year, we are aiming an increase of eight per cent, or at least five per cent. From January to March 2019, shopping expenditure showed an increase of 8.9 per cent at RM7.05 billion. Usually, in the third quarter, it will increase even more.

"We certainly look forward to a positive tourism performance this year. Between January and June 2019, the number of tourist arrivals was recorded at 13.35 million, an increase of 4.9 per cent compared to the same period last year,” he told a press conference after the launch of Malaysia YES campaign here, today.

Musa said, based on the study conducted by Tourism Malaysia, the top items bought by tourists during their visit to Malaysia last year were handicrafts, clothing items, beauty products and shoes.

He also said the YES campaign could also help promote the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 which aimed at luring 30 million tourists and RM100 billion in tourism receipts. — Bernama