BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Brunei's international tourist air arrivals hit historical highs last year on support from Chinese visitors, according to statistics provided to Xinhua by the Tourism Development Department under the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism on Thursday.

Data from the 2018 Tourism Statistics report showed that international tourist arrivals through the Brunei International Airport grew by 7.4 percent from 258,955 tourists in 2017 to 278,136 tourists in 2018.

Brunei received most of its tourist air arrivals from China due to tourism packages and aggressive promotions, as well as increased air connectivity from newly scheduled flights,the department said.

Chinese tourists made up 23.6 percent of visitors to Brunei through the Brunei International Airport in 2018, up from 20.9 percent in 2017.

Malaysia had a 21.4 percent share of visitors in Brunei last year followed by Indonesia (9.9 percent), Philippines (8.0 percent) and Singapore (5.1 percent).

These five countries accounted for 67.9 percent of tourist air arrivals in Brunei in 2018.

According to the report, 45.6 percent of tourists arriving in Brunei were for leisure and holiday purposes. Another 12.4 percent of the arrivals were here on business while 12.1 percent were on transit.