Malaysians choose family over shopping or holidays, domestic travel data shows

Malaysians delight in visiting family and friends, so much so that these visits made up 44 per cent of domestic travel.

They enjoy seeing their loved ones even more than shopping (21.6 per cent) and holidaying (13 per cent), as shown in the latest numbers from the Statistics Department on domestic tourism in the second quarter of this year.

The 44 per cent recorded is even higher than last year’s trend in domestic tourism where “visiting relatives and friends remained the primary purpose of domestic travel, accounting for 35.6 per cent”.

The dominance of family-related travel has presented opportunities for accommodation providers, particularly when visitors prefer to stay near their relatives rather than in their homes.