Malaysia’s Tourism Money Is Moving: 52% Now Goes to Shopping and Food

Visit Malaysia 2026 may be promoted through beaches, culture, heritage and the enduring promise of “Malaysia Truly Asia”, but the commercial story is increasingly unfolding somewhere more immediate: at the checkout counter and the dining table.

The latest thematic assessment from BIMB Securities highlights a striking shift in how foreign visitors spend. Shopping now accounts for 36.1% of tourist expenditure, while food and beverage takes another 15.9%. Together, they command 52% of the tourism wallet.

Accommodation, by comparison, has fallen to around 19% of spending, from roughly a quarter a decade ago. That changes the way marketers, retailers and investors should look at Visit Malaysia 2026.

Tourism is no longer simply a race to fill hotel rooms. It is becoming a battle to capture the visitor’s wallet after check-in.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, inbound tourism expenditure reached RM107 billion in 2024, jumping 41.1% year-on-year. Shopping alone represented 36.1% which is equivalent to approximately RM38.6 billion, making retail the single largest component of inbound expenditure.

This is a powerful signal for Malaysia’s consumer economy.

A tourist landing in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru or Kota Kinabalu is not merely buying a hotel room and attraction ticket. The visitor journey increasingly moves through malls, restaurants, cafés, pharmacies, beauty counters, fashion stores, supermarkets and experience-led retail spaces.

The mall becomes part of the destination

For marketers, that changes the brief.

Prime malls should no longer view VMY2026 merely as a seasonal footfall opportunity. They can become tourism media platforms in their own right — places where international visitors discover Malaysian brands, cuisine, culture and entertainment within a single environment.

The competitive advantage will lie in reducing friction while increasing discovery: multilingual communication, traveller-specific promotions, seamless mobile payments, tourism partnerships, concierge-style content and campaigns built around three simple questions:

What should I buy? What should I eat? What should I take home? F&B deserves particular attention.

At 15.9% of expenditure, food is clearly no longer an incidental part of the visitor experience. It is part of the tourism product itself.

Malaysia’s extraordinary food diversity gives restaurants, food courts, cafés and packaged-food brands an opportunity to turn consumption into cultural discovery and cultural discovery into shareable content.

A bowl of laksa, plate of nasi lemak or packet of locally made snacks can become both memory and media. That opportunity extends directly to Malaysian brands.

Foreign tourists represent incremental consumers who may have little previous relationship with a local brand. A purchase in Malaysia can therefore become the first act of international brand discovery.

Home-grown fashion, beauty, food, lifestyle and premium souvenir brands suddenly have a powerful sampling opportunity.

VMY2026 could become one enormous sampling campaign for Brand Malaysia. The numbers could become substantial.

Malaysia is targeting 47 million foreign tourists and around RM329 billion in tourism receipts in 2026. If the 2024 spending mix broadly held, 52% would theoretically put more than RM171 billion into shopping and F&B. That is not a forecast as spending patterns will inevitably change but it illustrates the sheer potential scale of the consumer opportunity.

The gains, however, will not be evenly distributed.

BIMB Securities argues that quality assets and prime tourism locations are better positioned than the broader retail market. Tourists have limited time, meaning expenditure naturally gravitates towards convenient, recognisable and experience-rich destinations.

The winners will therefore be properties and brands that combine retail, dining, entertainment, accessibility and strong digital discoverability.

The second tourism wallet: healthcare

There is another high-value spending stream marketers should not overlook: medical tourism.

Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) figures show approximately 1.85 million healthcare travellers generated about RM3.35 billion in 2025. Malaysia also enjoys a formidable value proposition, with treatment costs typically 30% to 60% below comparable Western-country procedures.

Medical travellers are particularly valuable because their economic footprint frequently extends beyond hospitals. Patients travel with family members, require accommodation, dine locally, shop and sometimes remain in Malaysia during recovery.

Healthcare tourism therefore creates an entire ecosystem of adjacent spending.

Malaysia Year of Medical Tourism 2026 is designed to accelerate that momentum, with the sector targeting RM12 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

For marketers, the broader lesson is simple.

Counting arrivals tells Malaysia how many people came. Following expenditure tells businesses where the value went.

VMY2026 will certainly remain a tourism campaign.

Commercially, however, it represents something much bigger: a temporary but potentially massive expansion of Malaysia’s consumer market.

The brands that win will not necessarily be those shouting “Visit Malaysia” the loudest. They will be the ones positioned closest to where tourists actually open their wallets.