Malaysian tourism minister urged his countrymen to demonstrate the culture of smile to woo more tourists, local press reported Wednesday.

Malaysians must be more welcoming to visitors, particularly in view of the massive international promotion for the Visit Malaysia Year 2007, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said.

"We want to promote the country as a tourism destination but that will not happen if service providers don't buck up. Please smile more," Tengku Adnan was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

Taxi drivers, in particular, should stop swindling tourists and charging ridiculous sums for fares that cost less than 5 ringgit ( 1.39 U.S. dollars), the minister said Tuesday after attending a function.

The ministry hopes to attract over 20 million visitors this year, and garner at least 44.5 billion ringgit (12.36 billion U.S. dollars) in receipts.

Last year's tourist receipts were 1.4 billion ringgit (388.89 million U.S. dollars) short of the 37.6 billion ringgit (10.44 billion U.S. dollars) target, though this tropical country registered record-breaking tourist arrivals of 17.54 million, posting an increase of 6.8 percent on a year-on-year basis.

"We must encourage more long-haul tourists who stay more than a week. Right now, the average stands at 6.2 nights," said the tourism minister.

Source: Xinhua