SINGAPORE IS LARGEST TOURIST MARKET FOR MALAYSIA

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Bernama) -- About 13 million tourists from Singapore visited Malaysia last year with an increase of 2.4 per cent over the 2009 figure, making the city-state its largest tourist source.

Tourism Malaysia acting director-general Azizan Noordin who disclosed this, said the number of tourists generated RM28.4 billion (US$9.432 billion) in receipts for the country.

"This helped us achieve total tourist arrivals of 24.6 million and receipts of RM56.5 billion (US$18.758 billion)," he told a press conference held in conjunction with the Islamic Fashion Festival and Thank You Luncheon, here, Thursday.

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

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.