Brunei sees fewest tourist arrivals, Myanmar highest
BRUNEI has the lowest growth of tourist arrivals among its Asean peers, with figures barely passing the 250,000 mark annually during most of the years between 2003 and 2012.
Myanmar recorded the highest rate of growth at 22.3 per cent.
This was followed by Cambodia at 18.6 per cent and Laos with 16.6 per cent in the 10-year period.
According to statistics from the “2013 Asean and Korea in Figures” compiled by the Asean-Korea Centre, Brunei is the only country in the region which did not record any growth.
The annual report sourced its information from the Asean Tourism Database and Tourism Statistics from the Korea Tourism Organisation.
Malaysia and Thailand, which are some of Asean’s most renowned tourist destinations, recorded a 7.3 and 7.9 per cent growth rate, respectively, which was slightly higher than the region’s average of 7.1 per cent.
In terms of the highest numbers of tourist arrivals, Malaysia leads the pack with more 20 million tourist arrivals a year since 2007 and peaking at 25 million in 2012.
This was followed by Thailand, which recorded its highest tourist arrivals at 22 million in the same year.
Singapore, which recorded a growth rate of 4.5 per cent with available data from 2003 to 2011, registered 13 million tourist arrivals. The country recorded 10 million arrivals from January to September 2012.
Brunei recorded 944,000 tourist arrivals in 2003, which is the largest figure in the 10-year period.
However, tourist arrivals fell nearly eight times in 2004.
In the next four years after 2004, Brunei saw up to only 179,000 arrivals annually.
In 2008, the figures rose to over 200,000 tourist arrivals before falling back to 150,000 the following year and then climbing back into the 200,000 bracket.
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos registered lower numbers than Brunei in 2003, but a steady increase saw the three countries registering numbers in the millions as of 2012.
