Malaysia is confident of registering the targeted 1.7 million Chinese tourist arrivals this year, encouraged by the 26.4 per cent rise in arrivals in the first quarter compared to the corresponding period last year.

In March this year, Chinese tourist arrivals rose 30.5 per cent to 168,118 from the 128,795 recorded in March last year.

Malaysia had 1,558,785 Chinese tourist arrivals last year, up 24.6 per cent year-on-year from the 1,250,536 recorded in 2011.

It had been reported that the number of Chinese outbound travellers surpassed 83.18 million in 2012, a 18.41 per cent increase year-on-year, with total overseas spending hitting the US$102 billion (RM326 billion) mark.

The number is expected to reach 94.3 million this year, a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent, while spending is targeted to hit US$117.6 billion (RM376 billion).