KUALA LUMPUR, 27 December 2003 — Tourist arrivals in Malaysia increased seven percent in November year-on-year, signalling a much hoped-for recovery of the travel industry, a report said Thursday. The number of visitors to the country reached 1.13 million in November, but the total number of tourists between January and November 2003 was a mere 9.25 million, dropping 23 percent from 2002, the Business Times said. The report noted that southern neighbor Singapore remained Malaysia’s main source of tourists, with about 651,000 people. The number of Indonesian tourists in November surged 62 percent above the 52,087 last year, while visitors from South Korea and Taiwan jumped 32 percent each from last year’s 4,518 and 11,771, respectively. Tourist arrivals dropped this year because of the US-led war on Iraq and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).