TEMPO.CO, JAKARTA – According to VN Express International, Malaysia has become the most visited country in Southeast Asia through 2023. The country welcomed around 29 million tourists last year.
According to a report by Focus Malaysia, the largest number of foreign tourists visiting Malaysia were Singaporeans with over 8.3 million visitors, followed by tourists from Indonesia, Thailand, China and Brunei.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand was the most visited country in the region, attracting more than 40 million tourists in 2019. This year, Thailand was targeting 35 million foreign tourist visits.
In 2023, Thailand will come in second with more than 28 million foreign tourists, followed by Singapore with 13.6 million foreign tourists. Vietnam will come in fourth with 12.6 million visitors, while Indonesia will record 11.7 million arrivals.
The Philippines and Cambodia are expected to welcome a combined total of about 5.4 million foreign tourists in 2023.
Visa Exemption Policy
Southeast Asian countries have been trying hard to attract foreign tourists by implementing flexible immigration policies since the end of last year. From December 1, Malaysia, like Thailand, has allowed nationals of mainland China and India to enter the country without a visa for 30 days.
Starting in mid-August, Vietnam will issue three-month tourist visas to nationals of all countries and regions, and have tripled the length of stay in Vietnam to 45 days for nationals of 13 countries that were previously exempt from visas.
Indonesia’s Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno said in December last year that the government was considering extending the visa-free policy to 20 more countries, including the United States, China, Australia, India, South Korea, Germany, Britain and France, in hopes of increasing arrival numbers.
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