The Hindu Business Line : Malaysia to attract more Indian tourists

Tourists arrivals
During 2006, Malaysia hoped that around 2.5 to 2.8 lakh Indian tourists would visit the country. In the current year during January-May 2006 around 1.1 lakh Indian tourists had visited Malaysia. Tourists from South India formed 20-25 per cent of the tourists from India.

Coimbatore , Aug. 25

The Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB), which is promoting `Visit Malaysia 2007' in connection with the celebration of 50 years of Independence, wants to increase the number of tourists from India to 3.5 lakh next year from around 2.25 lakh during 2005.

It wants to promote Malaysia as a tourism destination on its own merit, though it is a fact that at present a good number of Indian tourists visit Malaysia as part of a Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore tourism circuit. The country is also emerging as a shopping destination.

Speaking to Business Line here on Friday, Mr Noor Arif Mohd. Noor, Director (South India), MTPB, Chennai, said the number of Indian tourists visiting Malaysia has grown from around 46,000 in 1999 to 2.25 lakh in 2005. But in terms of the global tourist arrivals, the share of the Indian tourists was small. While in 2005 the number of global tourist arrivals was 16.43 million, the share of the Indian tourists was only 2.25 lakh.

During 2006, Malaysia hoped that around 2.5 to 2.8 lakh Indian tourists would visit the country. In the current year during January-May 2006 around 1.1 lakh Indian tourists had visited Malaysia. He said tourists from South India formed 20-25 per cent of the tourists from India. Now the MTPB is trying to bring more tourists from South India to Malaysia by taking up tourism promotional activities among the people of the travel industry in the region.

Asked about the reasons for the lower number of Indian tourists visiting Malaysia, he said the country has to compete with other destinations like Dubai, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, apart from Thailand and Singapore, to attract tourists. Indian tourists loved to visit the South East Asian nations and the entire region has to be promoted. The number was growing year after year and he was confident of achieving the target of 3.5 lakh Indian tourists visiting his country next year. By organising special events during the `Visit Malaysia 2007' campaign, MTPB hoped that tourists would spend more time in Malaysia. During 2005 while more than three lakh Indian tourists visited Singapore, Malaysia had 2.25 lakh tourists from India.

When pointed out that Dubai and Singapore attracted lot of shoppers wanting to buy gold or electronic goods, he said Malaysia also organised mega shopping carnival during July-September every year during which goods were sold at a discount of up to 70 per cent. There is growing awareness about the shopping bonanza awaiting tourists in Malaysia that is known for international garment brands, leather goods, etc.

Replying to a question as to whether the MTPB would arrange for chartered flights from Coimbatore to Malaysia to give a boost to the tourist flow from this region as there is no direct air-link between Coimbatore and South East Asian Nations, he said so far this issue had not been taken up with the airline companies but he did not want to comment on it as it had something to do with the aviation agreements among the countries concerned.