Ng: Most pensioners and retirees enjoy village life

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SINGAPORE: The country’s home stay programme has been lauded as a success with Singaporeans accounting for more than half of the 150,000 people who participated in the programme last year.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said most of the pensioners and retirees enjoyed the train rides and also the village lifestyle including fishing, nature walks and even eating fruits in the orchards.

She said so far 3,300 homes from 124 villages nationwide were involved in the programme.

Dr Ng also explained the programme also helped boost the income of the rural folks.

Steady on: Dr Ng (middle) travelling in one of the 55 buses involved in Tourism Malaysia’s bus advertising campaign in Singapore. Looking on is Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk Md Hussin Nayan (left).

In one case, the home stay owner earned up to RM10,000 a month compared with only RM1,000 previously.

She said based on feedback, a special taskforce involving the Tourism Ministry and KTM Berhad would be formed to look into some of the complaints or weaknesses raised by the people especially with regards to hygiene.

She was speaking to reporters at the launch of the bus advertising campaign involving 55 buses here recently.

On another matter, Dr Ng urged more Singaporeans to apply for the Malaysian Automated Clearance System (MACS) to avoid being caught in jams at the checkpoints due to the implementation of the biometric system.

She said although the MACS was launched about two years ago, only about 100,000 Singaporeans have applied for this.

“I hope that more than two million Singaporeans will apply for this card which will expedite immigration clearance for them,” she said, acknowledging that immigration clearance was important to promote tourism.

The MACS costing RM30 is available to Singaporeans and those with Singaporean Permanent Resident Status and even foreigners doing business in Johor.

Dr Ng, who apologised for the inconvenience faced by Singaporeans when the biometric system was implemented in June, said during that period, the number of visitors had dipped.

“Maybe we need to make it more easier for this card to be applied,” she said.