As country tightened its belt, Yen Yen spent almost RM3 million on trips from 2010 to 2013

Former tourism minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen (pic, left) racked up a RM2.71 million bill for overseas trips between 2010 and January this year, at a time when Putrajaya was telling Malaysians to tighten their belts and adjust their lifestyles because of rising living costs.

Tourism is now Malaysia's second largest foreign exchange earner and seventh largest contributor to the economy, contributing RM47.2 billion to Gross National Income (GNI) in 2012.

But Dr Ng's trips have raised the ire of opposition lawmakers and citizens who say the bill is excessive.

In a parliamentary written reply to Lim Guan Eng (DAP - Bagan), Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said in 2010 Dr Ng and her delegations spent RM1.28 million on overseas trips in January, April, May, June, August, September and October that year.

In 2011, Dr Ng and her accompanying delegations ran up a bill of RM814,142 on trips in May, July, August and November.

Last year, RM588,547 was spent on trips in January, March, May, July and November. Her last trip was made in January this year when she and her delegation spent RM35,400.

Dr Ng was appointed tourism minister from April 2009 until the 13th General Election where she was not fielded.

She was not appointed back to the Cabinet but her successor Nazri appointed her as the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board chair.

During her tenure, Dr Ng had come under fire from the opposition for her extensive travelling and spending.

Her chief critic was DAP's Anthony Loke, the former Rasah MP and currently the Seremban MP, who had branded her as "touring minister".

Loke had flayed Dr Ng for "lavishly" spending RM3 million to organise the 2012 Pacific Asia Travel Association conference held in Kuala Lumpur in April as well as forking out RM1.8 million for six Facebook pages as part of an integrated social media campaign.

In July this year, Loke had warned Nazri to keep an eye on Dr Ng, telling Nazri to make sure "she does her job".

Nazri responded that Dr Ng was selected because of her experience as a tourism minister and also because Malaysia wanted to attract tourists from China.

"We want a bigger pie of the Chinese market. Ng can help because she speaks Mandarin," Nazri had said.