Malaysia is boosting its efforts to win back foreign tourists, particularly from China after negative publicity over alleged harassment of Chinese nationals here, officials said today.

"We are redoubling our efforts and it looks as if we are on the right track. We have also gone to China to draw back the tourists to Malaysia next year," Tourism Minister Leo Michael Toyad told the Bernama news agency.

"Media reports on the issue have affected the image of Malaysia so we have to take steps to improve the image," he said.

Tourism Malaysia's figures show Chinese arrivals to Malaysia have plunged by 44 percent this year, averaging 25,487 a month from January to September, compared to 45,853 a month in 2004.

The government has attributed the fall to increased competition from other tourist destinations but also blamed negative publicity over the treatment of Chinese nationals.

Video furore

There was a furore recently when a video clip emerged of a woman, believed to be a Chinese national, stripped and forced to perform squats in police custody.

The footage, which emerged after allegations by several Chinese women that they were singled out and badly treated by Malaysian police, forced Malaysia to apologise to China and send a minister on a fence-mending trip to Beijing.

However, in a surprise twist to the case this month, it was revealed that the woman in question was actually an ethnic Malay Malaysian.

Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board Director Kamaruddin Siaraf said that as part of the campaign to boost the country's image traders in the bazaar district of Petaling Street should be more courteous to tourists.

"We hope the traders would not resort to threatening the tourists. They should be more ethical in doing their business," he said.