Singaporeans love Malaysia, number 1 tourist

Singaporeans love Malaysia, number 1 tourist

Singaporeans visited Malaysia about 13 million times as tourists last year, an increase of 2.4 percent compared to the 2009 figure. Homestay programmes are hot tourist products.

SINGAPORE – Singaporeans visited Malaysia about 13 million times as tourists last year, an increase of 2.4 percent compared to the 2009 figure. This makes the city-state Malaysia’s largest tourist source. Tourism Malaysia acting director-general Azizan Noordin, who disclosed this, said the number of tourist visits generated RM28.4 bil in receipts for Malaysia.

“This helped us achieve total tourist arrivals of 24.6 million and receipts of RM56.5 billion,” he told a press conference held in conjunction with the Islamic Fashion Festival and Thank You Luncheon, here yesterday.

Also present were Malaysian ambassador to Singapore, Datuk Hussin Md Nayan, and Tourism Malaysia for Singapore director, Zalizam Zakaria.

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Azizan said among the Malaysian tourism products, the homestay programme had gained popularity among Singaporeans, who accounted for almost half of all homestay tourists. He said Malaysia had 140 villages offering homestay programmes, where   3,009 homes have 4,023 rooms for accommodation. Azizan said the homestay programme offered tourists something special.