KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 -- Malaysia's overseas travellers increased last month despite the ongoing Middle East conflict, mainly boosted by visitors from the Asean and Asian regions, with countries such as China and Indonesia showing the strongest growth.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said Malaysia had 2,835,724 (2.8 million) international visitors for March 1 to March 26 this year, which is a 2.4 per cent increase compared to the 2,769,305 (over 2.76 million) for the same period last year.

The South-east Asian region or Asean remains the largest contributor with 2,093,096 (2.09 million) arrivals last month, and grew by 0.6 per cent when compared against the same period last year.

Visitor numbers from the Middle East had a s...