According to Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, two Chinese travel firms have agreements in place with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture to transport 450 000 tourists to this country.

The deals, according to the minister, were struck on March 29, when he traveled to China with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Tiong continued to work to promote Malaysian tourism until April 11.

"With two of the travel agencies there, we were able to negotiate agreements. Each agency will receive 350,000 and 100,000 respectively.

At his ministry's breaking-of-fast celebration today, he told reporters, "We met with a few travel agencies but some didn't manage to get the papers ready."

Tiong, however, claimed that Malaysia had been requested by the two agencies to deal with two issues initially with Chinese travelers.

According to him, the first was for simpler visa application processes, and the second was for additional seating on flights between the two nations.

He stated, "My ministry will have several meetings with pertinent authorities, like the immigration department, on this."

Tiong stated that his ministry was making ongoing efforts to meet the aim of five million Chinese tourists expected to arrive worldwide in 2023.