On Dec 12, Tourism Malaysia posted the latest arrival figures on its website. There were 14,467,037 tourist arrivals and 6,363,262 excursionist arrivals until September this year.
In other words, we received a total of 20,830,299 visitor arrivals for the first nine months, or at the rate of 2,314,477 per month or 27,773,732 per year. At this rate, total visitor arrivals over 10.5 months from Jan until Nov 15 would only be 24,302,000.
Earlier, it was reported that Malaysia received 26 million tourist arrivals until Nov 15, and I immediately pointed out the figure could be for visitor arrivals and not just tourist arrivals. It now appears that the 26 million was simply plucked out of the sky.
And worse, the authorities are still staying mum over the matter, and the longer it takes, the less convincing it will be when required to explain later.
The views expressed here are strictly those of YS Chan from Kuala Lumpur.