Genting Malaysia is one of a handful of companies seen benefiting from a tourism boom in Malaysia in 2025, according to Maybank Investment Bank, as the government starts spending heavily on the sector ahead of its Visit Malaysia Year 2026 campaign.
Targeting foreign tourist arrivals of 31.4 million this year and 35.6 million next year, Malaysia has set aside MYR550 million (US$122 million) for tourism promotion in 2025, with Maybank analyst Samuel Yin Shao Ying noting that he is positive on the tourism industry’s prospects given historical trends that show a spike in tourist arrivals in the year before a Visit Malaysia Year. This is because tourist promotions actually start six to nine months before the official campaign.
That’s good news for companies like Genting Malaysia, with Yin predicting its flagship Resorts World Genting property outside Kuala Lumpur should welcome 25.2 million visitor arrivals in 2025 and 25.7 million in 2026.
“Foreign tourists typically account for 15% to 20% of RWG visitor arrivals,” he wrote. “Historically, RWG contributes more than 80% to group earnings. Every 500,000 more than expected RWG visitor arrivals will accrete 5% to our earnings estimates.”
Key to the tourism boom will be Chinese, Indian and domestic tourists which have already played a key role in RWG’s post-COVID recovery.
Thanks to the visa free access Malaysia granted visitors from China and India from December 2023, Yin notes that Chinese tourist arrivals through the first 11 months of 2024 were 4% higher than the same period in 2019, while Indian tourist arrivals were a massive 47% higher.
“China and India are the only two major source markets to have sent more tourists to Malaysia in 2024 than in 2019,” he said.
“The continued growth in Chinese and Indian tourist arrivals started with Malaysia granting 15 days visa free access to both nationalities in December 2023. In December 2024, Malaysia announced that it will extend the visa free access period for Chinese and Indian tourists to 30 days and extend the visa free program itself to 31 December 2026 to facilitate Visit Malaysia Year 2026.”
In Genting Malaysia’s 3Q24 results announcement, the company revealed that visitation to RWG was up 12% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter, while hotel occupancy was at 99% despite a 5% decline in domestic guests. The domestic decline was offset by a 13% increase in foreign guests including a better than 100% improvement in guests from China.
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