A total of 10.38 million tourists visited Malaysia for the first eight months this year, an increase of 68.3 percent from last year and 16.3 percent in 2002, said Tourism Minister Leo Michael Toyad today.

He said for August alone, a total of 1.3 million inbound arrivals were recorded despite a minor outbreak of avian flu in Kelantan.

This was a 53.5 percent increase in tourist arrivals for the same month in 2003

The minister told a press conference at the Parliament lobby that most of the tourists were from Arab countries.

Strong interest

"This latest figure indicates strong foreign interest in visiting the country. Tourist arrivals did not drop due to bird flu because it was not an epidemic as other parts of Malaysia are not affected," he said.

According to him, the tourists spent an average of RM7,000 per head during their stay in the country.

The minister said the government used the 2002 statistics as a benchmark as tourist arrivals last year were hit tremendously by the global outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) and Iraq war.

In 2002, tourist arrivals from January to August was at 8.9 million while in 2003, it was 6.2 million for the same period.

Also present at the press conference was the Deputy Tourism Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.