Tourism is a foreign currency earning industry for any country. Imagine just RM1,000 per foreign tourist x 1 million tourists pear year? Plus the typical economic multiplier of 3 or 4 to the economy? Plus the demand for properties? This is especially when a country receives millions of foreign tourists every year. I still remember when I first visited London in 1997. I felt that it was very ‘international’ because I could see a huge diversity of nationalities on the street. YES, I can sort of tell if they were British or non-British. Definitely possible to know if they are British or French or even Chinese or Japanese or Korean or even Thai. Anyway, statistically, London USED to be visited by the MOST number of visitors in the world until 2015. As for 2017, the below are the top 10 most visited cities of the world according to an article in TheStar by Euromonitor International unveiled on Wednesday the Top 100 City Destinations Ranking 2017 Edition1 at World Travel Market (WTM) London.
1) Hong Kong: 26.6 million visitors
2) Bangkok: 21.2 million visitors
3) London: 19.2 million visitors
4) Singapore: 16.6 million visitors
5) Macau: 15.4 million visitors
6) Dubai: 14.9 million visitors
7) Paris: 14.4 million visitors
8) New York: 12.7 million visitors
9) Shenzhen: 12.6 million visitors
10) Kuala Lumpur: 12.3 million visitors
Yea, it is official. Kuala Lumpur is already a top 10 most visited city in the world. I know, some would like to point out that perhaps the composition of the visitors are different, that those visiting Kuala Lumpur are not from the highest end. Haha. Perhaps you are totally right and I think it is okay. One day when Kuala Lumpur becomes very expensive, the visitors either drop in numbers of the quality of visitors would increase? Anyway, I seriously do not think only the poor visitors would choose Malaysia because there are still cheaper countries all over the region today. My friend always say that Thailand has better value as a tourist destination. I think that’s the reason they are now second from the top of the world today. Look closely at the numbers and we can see that the cities are mostly this part of the world. Let’s hope this continue and I seriously think ASIA or even ASEAN as a region can do more together.
Yes, of course more tourists meant more AirBnB potential. More property investment potentials and definitely some may just choose to stay longer and thereby increasing demand for higher end properties since foreigners are not allowed to buy affordable ones. To the 25 percent non Malaysians who are reading kopiandproperty.com today, you are great people. Drop by and enjoy our hospitality yeah. By the way, we are also a shopping haven. Malaysia, Truly Asia…. Full article in TheStar here.
written on 9 Nov 2017
Next suggested article: KKIA – currently 9 million and up to 12 million passengers in future
