Ng: S’poreans feeling at home with homestay programme

RAUB: More than half of the foreign visitors who took up homestay vacations in Malaysia last year were from Singapore with a majority opting for Johor. Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said of the more than 49,000 foreigners, 52.5% or nearly 25,800 were from the republic.

The Singaporeans were followed by visitors from Japan (22.4% or nearly 11,000) and Europe (9.3% or more than 4,500). Ng said Johor had the most number of homestay guests (23,300), followed by Selangor (5,600), Sabah (5,500) and Pahang (2,500).

Come ‘balik kampung’: Ng (third from left) visiting the homestays with some of the home owners after launching the Kampung Gali Hilir Homestay programme in Raub, Pahang yesterday. — BRIAN MOH / The Star

Besides Singapore, visitors from Japan and African nations made up the bulk (87%) of the homestay vacationers in Selangor. “Homestays are an opportunity to develop the rural economy,” said Ng, who singled out Raub as an ideal tourism district in Pahang due to its many small villages, interesting local spots and popular dishes. She said this in her speech when launching the Kampung Gali Hilir Homestay programme the second in the Raub district after Kampung Pasu near here, yesterday.

Ng, who is Raub MP, said Pahang currently had 14 homestay programmes, with 249 homes providing 376 rooms. Dr Ng said successful homestays made as much as RM10,000 a month. “Homestay is not merely providing accommodation. “It provides tourists with an experience of rural life, living with a family, doing traditional activities together and learning,” she said. “They (the visitors) would want to continue to balik kampung.”

-thestar online.