The government is stepping up efforts to attract Chinese tourists after recording a dramatic plunge in arrivals from China in recent months, said a senior tourism official.

Victor Wee, tourism ministry secretary-general, said officials were trying to discover the reason for the drop, with one report citing a decline of 67 percent in Chinese arrivals in June compared to the same month a year earlier.

"We are trying to get to the bottom of why the figures have been falling," Wee told AFP, adding that other countries in the region such as Thailand had also seen Chinese declines.

"We have engaged an agent to do promotions within China itself. This will be a new set of promotions especially targeting the tourist markets," he said.

Malaysia, which attracted over half a million Chinese tourists last year, will also launch a new advertising campaign in China within a month, he said.

Figures from the government's Tourism Malaysia showed that 16,000 Chinese tourist arrivals were recorded in June compared to 48,000 in the same month the previous year, the Star daily reported Sunday.

Malaysia's deputy tourism minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in Beijing as part of a Malaysian government delegation, blamed the drop on negative publicity.

Travel warning

Several Chinese tourists have fallen victim recently to snatch thefts, while a major Malaysian resort in July was forced to apologise to hundreds of Chinese tourists after rude behaviour by its staff.

The minister also cited a recent Chinese government travel warning against Malaysia, which advised citizens to be cautious, and said the country was losing out to its Chinese-majority regional neighbours.

Chinese make up 26 percent of Malaysia's 25 million people compared to some 60 percent of Muslim Malays.

"Currently the Chinese place Hong Kong and Singapore above Malaysia for shopping. I want to change this as Malaysia is a better shopping destination," Ahmad Zahid was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The drop in Chinese arrivals concides with an aggressive push by Malaysia to increase the number of tourists from the Middle East.

The number of Arab tourists visiting Malaysia doubled last year. The government, drawing on its status as a Muslim majority country, is targeting some 200,000 Arab arrivals this year, or a 40 percent increase.

Tourism is Malaysia's second-largest foreign exchange earner, grossing about RM30 billion in 2004 from 15 million visitors.