Mixed charts — International tourist arrivals and tourism revenue in four Asian countries, 2000-2014

The table shows how many international tourists visited four Asian countries in 2000, 2007 and 2014, while the line graph shows the revenue those visitors generated.

Overall, both arrivals and receipts rose substantially in all four countries over the fourteen years. Malaysia attracted the most visitors throughout, yet Thailand earned considerably more money, indicating much higher per-visitor spending.

Malaysia received 10.22 million tourists in 2000 and 27.44 million by 2014, the highest figure in the table at every date. Thailand followed closely, rising from 9.51 to 24.78 million, while Japan's arrivals almost tripled, from 4.76 to 13.41 million. Vietnam remained the least visited country, although its growth was proportionally the strongest, from 2.14 to 7.87 million.

Revenue tells a different story. Thai earnings surged from 7.5 to 38.4 billion dollars, outpacing Malaysia's rise to 21.8 billion despite Malaysia hosting nearly three million more visitors in 2014. Japan also earned steadily more, its revenue growing more than fivefold to 18.9 billion dollars. Vietnam's receipts climbed from just 0.5 to 7.3 billion, the fastest relative increase of all, though from the smallest base.