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State report · Johor
Two-thirds of Johor's hotel and travel trade is outside JB district (Sept 2026)
In HiGo's listings, Johor Bahru district, which takes in JB city, Iskandar Puteri and Pasir Gudang, has more merchants than Johor's other nine districts combined. Beauty businesses are even more concentrated there, about two in three; for restaurants and cafés, it's roughly half.
In Mersing district, hotel and travel businesses are almost as common as places to eat. Of the 912 merchants HiGo lists in the district, 161 are in hotels and travel and 169 in food and dining. In Johor Bahru district, places to eat outnumber hotel and travel businesses nearly five to one: 5,425 against 1,143.
As of 14 September 2026, HiGo's listings held 62,738 merchants in Johor, and Johor Bahru district accounted for 33,008 of them, or 52.6%. That's the whole administrative district, not just JB city.
Batu Pahat district, in second place, is less than a fifth the size of JB district
Batu Pahat district comes second with 6,242 merchants; JB district has 5.3 times as many. Mersing district has the fewest, 912, and JB district has 36 times as many. The other nine districts add up to 28,862, still more than four thousand short of JB district. Another 868 merchants have no district recorded, and even if every one of them belonged to the other nine, JB district would still come out ahead.
Nationally, Johor has the second-largest count among Malaysia's 13 states and three federal territories, with 13.0% of the 482,074 merchants in HiGo's listings. We ran the same count for Selangor a few days ago: its biggest district, Petaling, holds 35.7% of the state (41,128 of 115,092). Johor's 52.6% is more lopsided still. Read the Selangor piece.
Beauty, offices and renovation are the most concentrated in JB district
For Johor as a whole, 52.6% of merchants are in JB district. Split by industry, these five groups sit furthest above that line:
- Beauty and health: 65.9% (2,398 of 3,639)
- Offices and business: 61.4% (2,019 of 3,290)
- Everyday services: 59.1% (2,135 of 3,610)
- Construction and renovation: 58.8% (1,220 of 2,076)
- Property and housing: 57.5% (2,043 of 3,553)
About two in three of Johor's beauty and health businesses, from salons to barbers, are in JB district. Offices, everyday services, renovation firms and property agents cluster there too.
About half of Johor's places to eat, and two-thirds of its hotel and travel businesses, are outside JB district
The share in JB district is 50.2% for food and dining (5,425 of 10,814), 50.0% for coffee and drinks (1,148 of 2,296) and 49.3% for leisure and entertainment (1,181 of 2,396). All three fall below 52.6%. Roughly half of Johor's restaurants, kopitiams and places to unwind are outside JB district.
For hotels and travel, the share is lower still: just 1,143 of 3,282 businesses, or 34.8%, are in JB district. Of the 16 industry groups, only places of worship are more spread out (527 of 1,626, or 32.4%).
In Mersing and Kota Tinggi districts, hotels and travel make the top three
In Mersing, hotel and travel businesses form the district's second-biggest industry group, after food and dining. Of those 161, 62 are homestays, 27 are hotels and 17 are holiday chalets. In Kota Tinggi district, 336 of 2,855 merchants are hotels and travel, or 11.8%, its third-biggest group. In the other eight districts it ranks fourth or lower.
JB district sits at the other end. Only 3.5 in every 100 merchants there are hotel or travel businesses, the lowest of the ten districts. Mersing's share is more than five times as high.
Of the ten districts, Kulai has the highest share of industrial and manufacturing businesses
In Kulai district, 341 of 4,701 merchants are in industry and manufacturing, or 7.3%, against 5.1% for Johor as a whole. Muar district comes second at 6.8%. JB district has by far the most industrial and manufacturing businesses (1,737), but in a district of 33,008 merchants that works out at 5.3%.
What this means for you
- Planning an overnight trip out of JB? In both Mersing and Kota Tinggi districts, homestays are the biggest single type of hotel and travel business: 62 of Mersing's 161 and 123 of Kota Tinggi's 336. Kota Tinggi also has 23 campsites. JB district still has the most hotel and travel businesses overall, at 1,143.
- Looking for a salon or barber? JB district has the most choice, with 2,398 beauty and health businesses. Mersing district, with 912 merchants, has just 27.
- Thinking of opening a salon? In JB district, 7.3 in every 100 merchants are in beauty and health, the highest of the ten districts, so that's also where you'll face the most competition. In Mersing district, it's 3.0 per 100. These are counts of businesses only; they can't tell you whether the market is saturated.
Four stops outside JB district
Places nearby
One pick each from four districts beyond Johor Bahru district, all rated 4.3 or better and with at least 200 reviews:
Kedai Kek Emas Sdn Bhd 金蛋糕私人有限公司
ZUS Coffee - Jalan Seri Warisan, Kota Tinggi
Nasi Arab Tanah Melayu Benut Johor
UR by Switch @ Jalan Pesta Muar
Ratings and review counts come from Google's public data, as recorded by HiGo on 4 September 2026. They are not a HiGo ranking or recommendation.
Data: HiGo merchant listings, 14 September 2026, counted by each merchant's recorded district and the industry group HiGo assigns. The counts include merchants with sparse records and closed businesses. The listing count is not the total number of merchants in Johor, and ratings and review counts are public Google data, not scores given by HiGo.
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