SINGAPORE: The number of Singaporeans travelling on group tours to Malaysia increased to eight per cent last year, up from 1.8 per cent in 2000.

Outgoing Tourism Malaysia director for Singapore, Zalizam Zakaria, said 2011 statistics showed that people now preferred to travel in groups.

"One factor may be because they are not familiar with certain new places and, therefore, they prefer to go in groups," he told Bernama.

Zalizam, who had served as the Tourism Malaysia director for Singapore since 1988. Noor Aine Ismail will take over the post in Singapore.

The friendly and cheerful Zalizam said the increase in the number of group tours would benefit not only the travel agents but also hoteliers.

When they go in groups, he said, the tourists tend to spend more, for example, in terms of hotel accommodation, etc.

"Group tours will lead to an increase in spending power, whereas when they travel on their own, these tourists will only stay, perhaps, one or two nights," he said.

On his stint here, Zalizam said: "All the more than four years here have been exciting as I really enjoyed Singapore. I had good cooperation with the various relevant agencies, industry players as well the media," he said.

He had assisted and facilitated travel agents who encountered problems, such as those relating to the issue of the immigration white card, biometric data and congestion at checkpoints.

Zalizam, who hails from Kelantan, started his career with Tourism Malaysia in 1984 and has served in Hong Kong and Jeddah.

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