I refer to the Malaysiakini reports 'Korean scandal': No irregularities, says minister and Tourist arrivals hit new high in 2007.

As reported by the government, every year the number of tourists visiting Malaysia is increasing exponentially. Has anyone verified such figures as claimed by Tourism Ministry? What was the latest figure for the year 2007? Twenty million?

How we qualify a visitor as a tourist? Everyday thousands of Singaporean businessmen cross over bridges into Johor Baru to attend short business meetings and they go back the very same day. Are they considered tourists even though they might not spend a single sen while in Malaysia?

Many people from Thailand and Singapore might come over to our border towns to do some quick sundry shopping and get their petrol tanks filled. They leave after two hours. Do we consider them as tourists?

It is obvious why our tourism officials are claiming we have a huge increase in tourists coming into Malaysia. The bigger the figures they boast, the easier it is for them to get a bigger budget next year! And, of course, the easier to steal too.

Nowadays, not many quality tourists with high spending powers come to Malaysia. One can easily see how many international flights are coming into KLIA every day, the main hub for tourists coming into Malaysia. Your eyes will pop out if we compare the numbers of international flights flying into KLIA with those flying into Pudong, Changi, Hong Kong, Bangkok, etc.

The very fact that our mammoth KLIA airport handles only so few international tourists daily is scary. There are just too many questions about the Tourism Ministry’s tourism arrival figures.