What to know
Malaysia charges a tourism tax of 10 ringgit per room per night on a foreign passport holder staying at registered accommodation. The Tourism Tax Act 2017 imposes it, and the Tourism Tax (Rate of Tax) Order 2025 has fixed that rate since 15 December 2025.
The tax attaches to the accommodation and not to the head, so two tourists sharing a room owe one charge between them. The Tourism Tax (Exemption) Order 2017, in operation since 23 August 2017, takes Malaysian citizens and permanent residents out of it on production of a MyKad or a permanent resident card. The same order releases from registering any operator with four accommodation rooms or fewer, and the two national homestay programmes with them, so a stay booked under Pengalaman Homestay Malaysia or Visit My Kampung carries no tax.
Who collects the 10 ringgit depends on how the room was booked. Where a registered digital platform service provider takes the payment, section 20A of the Tourism Tax Act 2017 puts the charge on the platform and stops the operator collecting it a second time from a tourist who can show it has been paid. Nothing in the act gives a tourist a way to claim the money back, so there is no counter at the airport. Section 24 lets the operator deduct tax it has already refunded after a cancellation, an adjustment in its own return.
Accommodation is separately a taxable service, and the Service Tax (Rate of Tax) (Amendment) Order 2024 raised the tax on it from six to eight per cent on 1 March 2024. The Royal Malaysian Customs Department's guide applies that rate to a room-only price and to a room sold with breakfast alike. The same order left food and beverage, telecommunications, parking and logistics services at six per cent, so a restaurant bill and a hotel bill do not carry the same rate. A bill for the room carries a percentage service tax and a flat 10 ringgit tourism tax as two different lines.
Leaving by land or sea carries no departure levy. The Departure Levy Act 2019 charges it on air departures only, and the Royal Malaysian Customs Department's guide puts a cruise out of Port Klang, a bus to Singapore and a taxi across the border outside it. A pedestrian crossing the border is exempt as well.
The Departure Levy (Rate of Departure Levy) Order 2025 has set the amounts since 1 December 2025. Economy class to an ASEAN destination costs 8 ringgit and any other class 50 ringgit; beyond ASEAN it is 20 ringgit in economy class and 150 ringgit in any other. The levy falls due only on leaving Malaysia, and the customs department tells a passenger who has overpaid to claim it back from the airline that sold the ticket.
Heading off with a card? Read how to choose a travel money card - including why you should always pay in the local currency, not Australian dollars.
Working out what the trip costs? Put your daily spend and trip length through the travel budget calculator, or convert a single amount with the currency converter.