Sabah Tourism Statistics 2026 — 3.79M Visitors, RM8.74B

Tourism Overview

Sabah’s tourism sector has not only recovered from COVID-19 but exceeded expectations. The 3,793,709 arrivals in 2025 represent a 20.5% increase over 2024 and surpass the original 3.5 million target. The state government has said international arrivals now sit about 2% above pre-pandemic levels, though the baseline behind that comparison has not been published. Revenue of RM8.74 billion reflects a healthy mix of high-volume domestic tourism and higher-spending international visitors.

On the Department of Statistics’ most recent regional tourism account, covering 2024, the sector employed 387,600 people across accommodation, food and beverage, retail, transport and attractions, and contributed RM13.7 billion — a measure of economic contribution that is not comparable with the RM8.74 billion of 2025 receipts quoted above. That makes tourism Sabah’s second-most important economic contributor after oil and gas. With the Visit Sabah 2027 campaign and infrastructure investments, the state is aiming for 4 million arrivals in 2026 and sustained growth beyond 2027.

Top Source Markets

Sabah Tourism Board publishes arrivals by nationality for 38 countries and groupings. The top ten account for 91.7% of international arrivals and China alone for 43.9%, so the market is considerably more concentrated than the length of the list suggests. China grew 45% in 2025, driven by expanded direct air connectivity from several Chinese cities.

Visitor Type Breakdown

Sabah’s tourism is split between domestic visitors (2,295,000, or 60.5%) and international visitors (1,498,709, or 39.5%). The spending split runs the other way: international visitors account for a little over half of total tourism expenditure despite being under 40% of arrivals, because they stay longer and spend more on premium accommodation, diving and adventure activities. That expenditure share is a state government figure and is not separately published.

Sabah Tourism Board records arrivals by nationality rather than by home state, so no official breakdown of where Malaysian visitors travel from is published. Domestic visitors tend to come for leisure, to visit family, or for short holidays over weekends and school breaks. No official split of international visitors by purpose of visit is published either.

Seasonal Patterns

Sabah’s tourism follows clear seasonal patterns driven by school holidays, weather and regional events — though not quite the ones usually described. December is the single busiest month of the year, well ahead of any other, on year-end and school holidays.

July, August and September are the other busy months. September is the surprise: it is busier than both July and August, largely on domestic travel. Mid-year school holidays across Malaysia, Singapore and East Asia drive the July and August volume.

April and May are the quietest months, followed by a second dip in October and November as the northeast monsoon arrives on the east coast. January and February sit mid-table rather than at the bottom, so the common advice to treat them as Sabah's low season does not match the arrival counts.

Hotel Occupancy

Tourism Malaysia puts average hotel occupancy in Sabah at 51.6% in 2024, the most recent complete year, and 54.4% for January to September 2025. Sabah has run below the Malaysian average every year since 2021. Kota Kinabalu on its own was a little higher, at 58.5% over the same nine months. Tourism Malaysia also counts 540 hotels with 27,208 rooms in Sabah for 2024; wider counts of 685 to 691 properties circulate because they include lodges and budget premises that sit outside its ten-room survey frame. See our hotels page for the detail.

Occupancy has improved each year since 2023 — 49.0%, then 51.6%, then 54.4% across the first nine months of 2025 — but remains below both the national average and Sabah's own 65.8% in 2019, when it led the national figure. No revenue-per-room or segment-level series is published for Sabah.

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