The Malacca government is set to attract more tourists from Singapore to the Unesco World Heritage City of Malacca through collaboration with the main industry players in the city state, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.

"We are really looking forward to establishing networking and cooperation with the main industry players here in order to attract more tourists from Singapore.

Mohd Ali said that to sustain Malacca City's position as a must-visit destination, the state government was promoting it based on 12 sub-sector tourism products, namely history, culture, recreation, sports, shopping,
convention, health, education, agro-tourism, food, Malacca My 2nd Home and youth tourism.

Also present at the event were Tourism Malaysia Director for Singapore Zalizam Zakaria; Melaka State Secretary Datuk Wira Omar Kaseh; Melaka Tourism, Culture and Heritage Committee Chairman Datuk Wira Latiff Tamby Chik; General Manager of the Tourism Promotion Division in the Melaka Chief Minister's
Department, Abd Kadir Md Idris, and local tourism industry players.

Mohd Ali said: "Last year, we received a total of 12.2 million tourist arrivals compared to 10.3 million in 2010, an increase of 17.5 per cent, with the length of stay at 2.15 nights. Tourist expenditure increased to about RM7.5 billion compared to RM5 billion previously."

In terms of foreign markets, he said, China continued to be the market leader, with a share of 21 per cent, followed by Singapore (18.9 per cent), Indonesia (11.3 per cent), Taiwan (six per cent) and Myanmar (5.5 per cent).

"Singapore continues to be the second major market for foreign tourist arrivals in Malacca," he said.

The chief minister said various efforts and strategies had been developed to attract 12.5 million tourist arrivals to Melaka this year, and added that this mission was supported by the theme of "Visit Historic Malacca Means Visit Malaysia".

He also said that Malacca was being introduced to tourists as a state that was clean, beautiful, colourful and bright, as well as a shopping paradise which also had delicious and tasty food.

"I hope this visit will mark the beginning of a steady flow of tourists from Singapore to Malacca. In conjunction with the 'Malacca 750 Years' celebration, should you visit Malaysia, and specially Malacca, this year, you would be able to experience more than 120 events, including 20 mega events and festivities, that
have been planned throughout the year," he said.