Tourism Boom: Foreign Visitors Exceed Kuala Lumpur’s Population

Tourism Boom: Foreign Visitors Exceed Kuala Lumpur’s Population

Foreign tourists are more than the population number in Kuala Lumpur

The whole Kuala Lumpur (not Greater KL) has a population of slightly over 2 million. Well, on average 3.5 million foreign tourists are in Malaysia every month. If we assume just 70 percent of these 3.5 million were in Kuala Lumpur at some point in that one month, it meant that there were MORE foreign tourists in Kuala Lumpur than the total population. Why is this number amazing, one wonders? Well, these foreign tourists are definitely enjoying food. In other words, restaurants have extra business.

Especially the famous ones, they get more attention than others. Good for the owners of these F&B outlets. Once they earn a lot, maybe they will employ more people, buy a new car, upgrade their home and more. Here’s the latest report about the number and actually this is already higher than even before Covid.

Article in straitstimes.com Foreign tourist arrivals in Malaysia saw an increase of 14.5 per cent from 2024, said the country’s Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry. 

A total of 28,242,804 tourists visited Malaysia from January to August, compared with 24,665,306 in the same period in 2024.

The ministry said numbers for 2025 also represent a 16.4 per cent increase over 2019, which recorded 24,258,413 foreign tourists. Article in straitstimes.com

3.5 million is a crazy number but it seems that tourism ministry is aiming for 4 million for 2025

Here’s the source: thestar.com.my “Its director-general Datuk Manoharan Periasamy expressed confidence that the target is achievable, citing the 38 million visitor arrivals to Malaysia last year.

“For the record, the number of visitors to Malaysia as of February this year has increased by 31.3%, reaching 6.7 million compared with 5.1 million during the same period last year. The main contributors to this growth are visitors from Singapore, China, and India,” he said.

“Looking at the current trend in tourist arrivals, we are optimistic about achieving the target of 45 million visitors, and this goal is certainly within reach. .” Refer here for the full article: thestar.com.my

More accommodation needed, does it mean less homes for the people?

As most people say, it’s the tenants market today. More owners are desperately trying to get tenants and thus tenants are spoilt for choice and could just move here and there. Sometimes, I do wonder when will the number of tourists be so many that more owners will be converting their units to serve these visitors instead of trying to get a long term tenant. It’s a different market, carries with it different set of issues but when push comes to shove, then just maybe it will happen.

Remember yeah, if the income is better than long term rental, they will not be coming back and this meant one less unit in the property market for working professionals who are moving to Kuala Lumpur from smaller towns all around Malaysia. At the moment, I think this worry is not a worry yet. If it is, then it would already be on front page of most media. Bad news always sell!

Owning a home gives flexibility too

If indeed one day the homes become too expensive to rent the whole unit, people would start to think of renting just a room. Just look at Singapore to understand why I say so. Well, if we do own the whole unit, even if we are still paying a monthly mortgage, we could rent out some rooms and maybe it could even cover the mortgage repayment. I meant in the near future. We will see if this truly happens. If I am the owner, I would just stay in the smallest room and rent out all the rest. Haha.

I will do this until the day when I am getting married, then I say sorry to the tenants, take back my unit and suddenly realize that the tenants have paid a lot of my mortgages over the past many years. Happy thinking about this potential yeah.

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