The Sars outbreak had a devastating effect on the country's tourism industry, cutting tourist arrivals by more than half in April, parliament was told today.

Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Fadzir said the impact of the pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) was worse than the effect of the Iraq war.

Tourist arrivals declined by 35.6 percent in March and by 58.6 percent in April, he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Scare waning

The decline was also caused by Malaysia's imposition of a visa freeze on some countries seriously affected by the outbreak, Abdul Kadir said.

With the scare waning, the country was launching a number of initiatives to attract tourists once more, including a series of cheap domestic holiday packages, he said.

The government last month set up a one billion-ringgit relief fund and provided tax breaks in an economic stimulus package to help the tourism industry, the country's second-ranked foreign exchange earner.

Malaysia has listed only five probable Sars cases, including two deaths, but suffered from the knock-on effects of the Sars outbreak in the region, where hundreds died and thousands more were infected. - AFP