TOURISM MALAYSIA STRATEGISES TO WOO MORE S'POREANS TO MALAYSIA

SINGAPORE, March 23 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board has
lined up strategies to introduce affordable new tourism products and packages to
attract more Singaporeans to Malaysia.

Malaysia Tourism Singapore director Zalizam Zakaria said Singapore was a
"very big and important market for us".

"It has always been the biggest contributor to our nation's tourism
economy," he told Bernama after the launch of the Central Region Seminar and
Travel Mart 2011, here.

Zalizam said Malaysia Tourism Singapore contributed nearly 53 per cent of
the total tourist arrivals from Singapore to Malaysia, saying: ".

"In 2009, we had about 12 million Singaporeans visiting Malaysia. Last year,
the number was up by four per cent to 13 million.

This year, he said, although the target set by the Tourism Ministry was
only 12 million tourists but "I think we can match the same number or little
bit higher than that."

Explaining that Singapore has only five million population and how did
Malaysia received 13 million Singaporean tourist arrivals, Zalizam said this was
because of repeat visitors.

"On the average, at least one Singaporean goes to Malaysia 2.5 times. After
two or three times, where do they go, that's why we have to expose new places
for them.

"Our strategy now is to open new places and new products for them," he said.

He said that the east coast states (Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang), the
northern state of Perak and the east Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak as
well as the rest of Malaysia are popular but were getting less visitors.

He said Tourism Malaysia Singapore was aggressively working with various
state governments to woo Singaporeans to these places.

Zalizam said Tourism Malaysia Singapore initiated this seminar and travel
market last year by focusing on region by region.

"We started with the east coast last year and today we are organising the
event to promote the central region comprising Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and
Putrajaya," he said.

He said the seminar and the travel market served as a fitting platform for
tourism players from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya to meet Singapore
travel and tour agents.

"The objective of organising this session is to allow the states to update
their latest tourism development happenings and to introduce these new products
and packages in their future travel itineraries," he added.