PARLIAMENT  The fact that the twin disasters of Malaysia Airlines - Flight MH370 and Flight MH17 - have the number seven in their flight numbers does not appear to sit well with a BN parliamentarian.

Jumat Idris (BN-Sepanggar) asked during Question Time today whether the government was considering to drop the number seven from Malaysia Airlines flights altogether, in light of the disasters.

"With the MH370 and MH17 incidents, will the ministry propose to drop the number seven from all MH flights numbers?" Jumat ( right ) asked.

Tourism Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, who appeared amused, merely replied that the matter was not under his purview and asked that it be directed to the Transport Ministry.

Earlier, Nazri conceded that the flight disasters, particularly MH370 in which most of its victims were Chinese nationals, had hurt the country's tourist arrivals from China and Taiwan.

"The MH370 tragedy has significantly affected the market in China and Taiwan, with a 11.8 percent and 2.9 percent reduction of tourist arrivals to Malaysia from the two countries respectively," he said.

Nazri said between January and July this year, tourists arrival from China had fallen from 1,130,721 to 997,370 and for Taiwan, from 173,921 to 168,962 compared with the same period last year.

Sabah kidnappings a concern

He added that the tourists were also concerned about recent series of kidnappings in Sabah, which involved Chinese nationals, but said that this matters was under the purview of the Home Ministry.

Nazri said his ministry has taken efforts to restore the confidence of tourists, besides refocusing on tourists from other regions.

Nonetheless, he said, Tourism Malaysia would continue with its campaign in China.

Nazri added this has not affected Malaysia's overall tourism industry as tourist arrivals from all over the world have increased to 13.87 million between January and June, up by 10.5 percent compared with the same period last year.

"The ministry is confident that we can achieve the target of 28 million tourist arrivals," he said.

Beijing-bound Flight MH370 carrying 239 people disappeared on March 8 this year, after the air control tower lost communication with the aircraft.

The aircraft remains lost and is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean. A lengthy search operation is still under way.

On July 17, Flight MH17, which was bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was shot over eastern Ukraine, which is under the control of separatists.