KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA attracted 20.88 million foreign visitors last year, a 19 per cent rise, setting a new record and bringing in US$14 billion (S$20.1 billion) in revenue, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said.

Tengku Adnan said he expected an even better performance for the 12 months of Visit Malaysia Year 2007 - held to attract visitors on the 50th year of its independence - which ends in August.

'In view of this, the government has revised the target for tourist arrivals for this year,' he told the state Bernama news agency late on Thursday, without giving any new figures.

The 20.88 million foreign visitors in 2007, however, represented an annual rise of almost a fifth, up from 17.5 million in 2006.

The tourism boom meant that Malaysia's hotels, which are cheap compared to neighbouring nations and often half-empty, were packed out for several months of 2007.

Tengku Adnan in August was forced to tell tour operators to 'cool off' as the nation experienced a room shortage in the capital Kuala Lumpur as well as other popular spots including Penang and Langkawi islands and on Borneo.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned in December however that a spate of street protests, which police dispersed with tear gas and water cannons, had hurt the tourism industry, with hotels and tour agencies reporting cancellations. -- AFP