Malaysia, which has launched a major campaign to attract visitors, is on track to achieve its target of 20.1 million tourist arrivals this year, the deputy prime minister was quoted as saying today.

The Star quoted Najib Abdul Razak as saying 8.9 million people had visited the country as of May 10 this year, with an average of two million a month.

"We are determined to achieve the target. So far so good," he was quoted as saying. "Barring unforeseen developments we should be on track to achieve our target."

Faced with growing regional competition for the tourist dollar, Malaysia is spending RM200 million during "Visit Malaysia Year 2007" to boost tourism, the nation's second-largest foreign exchange earner.

"Profiling of Malaysia is at an all-time high now and we are trying to reach out to as many markets as possible. We are taking the opportunity to bring in people to visit Malaysia by organising conferences," Najib was quoted as saying.

Malaysia is currently hosting hundreds of global delegates for a conference by the World Tourism Organisation, a United Nations agency.

Hundreds of others attended the World Islamic Economic forum held last week.

The country received 17.5 million visitors in 2006.

Officials have said they hope for RM44.5 billion in tourism receipts this year.