‘Malaysia aims at attracting more Indian tourists’

With Malaysia reopening its international borders allowing fully vaccinated foreign travellers, it now aims to attract more Indian tourists once again in the coming years, Malaysian Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Seri Dr. Santhara said on Wednesday.

India has been one of the top market sources for Malaysia and had contributed 7,35,309 arrivals in 2019 recording a rise of 22%, Mr. Santhara said here. 

Tourism Malaysia, an agency under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Malaysia had conducted roadshows covering six major cities in India in April followed by second roadshows in Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Kochi and Tiruchi from August 17 to 24 in association with Malaysia Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) focussing on promoting Malaysia as a preferred tourism destination, Mr. Santhara told reporters here. 

The roadshows had been conducted in different Indian cities to instil confidence among Indians to feel safe to visit Malaysia once again and provide a platform for the industry community to steer the tourism sector. Malaysia was thrilled to welcome Indian travellers once again with the reopening of the country’s international borders and the resumption of scheduled international flights from India.

“We want to further strengthen business relationship with India since Malaysia has cultural ties with India”, Mr. Santhara said, adding that his country was looking at getting back more Indian tourists by organising such roadshows to promote Malaysia yet again. The Minister said the target he was looking at was 2 million Indian tourists by 2025 given the close relationship and family-level ties with India and operation of direct flights to Malaysia. 

Replying to a question, Mr. Santhara said Malaysia had its tourism offices at Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi and opening of a similar tourism office at Tiruchi would be looked into.  Mr. Razaidi Abd Rahim, Director of Tourism Malaysia (South India and Sri Lanka) and Ganneesh Raama, vice president, Inbound and Outbound, MATTA were present on the occasion.