The Hindu Business Line : Malaysia calling

Malaysia is a multi-cultural society and our government understands the sentiment in India on this(crackdown on Indian Malaysians’ protest) issue. - Azizan Noordin

Holiday package: Multi-cultural Malaysia packs a wide range of tourist attractions.

Rasheeda Bhagat

Malaysia’s emergence as a popular destination for Indian weddings will get a boost on March 9 when Sabeer Bhatia of hotmail fame gets married in Langkawi.

“In the last two to three years, many Indians are opting to get married in Malaysia and Langkawi has emerged as the preferred destination; we do our best to personalise Indian weddings,” says Azizan Noordin, Regional Director, Internationa l Promotion Division of the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. On offer is a fairytale wedding in a picturesque locale — cool blue waters, clean beaches, lush greenery and romantic candle-light dinners.

Also popular for Indians, surprisingly, is medical tourism and, not surprising at all, adventure tourism. The adventure tours and trek packages devised for youngsters are getting immensely popular with Indians, he says. On offer are “soft adventure packages… where you have a good breakfast, go out and sweat it off and then go back to a five-star hotel for a good dinner. You don’t exactly have to live on trees, as some westerners imagine we do in Malaysia!”

In love with Bollywood

But above all, Malaysia’s romance with Indian cinema continues with major industry awards such as IIFA (International Indian Film Academy awards) and GIFA (Global Indian Film Awards) being organised in the country.

“Oh, just as Bollywood likes us, we too are very excited about Bollywood; Malaysians just love Bollywood, so it is a mutual affair! And thanks to the Indian film industry preferring Malaysia, many other countries are organising film awards in Malaysia,” says Noordin.

Last year, the country saw a record 4.52 lakh arrivals from India and Tourism Malaysia is confident that in 2008, Indian tourists will top the 5-lakh mark. Compared to 2007, when Malaysia saw 20.97 million arrivals, generating total tourism revenue of 46.1 billion Ringgit Malaysia ($13.97 billion), this year it hopes to get a whopping 22.5 million foreign tourists.

Though his country has been emerging as a popular holiday destination for Indian travellers since 1999, in recent times the growth rate has spurted.

“We are now seeing a big jump in Indian interest in Malaysia; what is important is that Indian tourists are from middle-and upper-class backgrounds and they spend more money.”

Shop-o-holics!

That of course is the bottomline; Indians are great shoppers and that they shop to their hearts’ content in Malaysia “can be seen from the size of their bags when they return. Also, Indians feel very comfortable in Malaysia in terms of food, language, culture. We find Indians sampling different and new kinds of cuisine; they find it a very safe place, you can walk around in any part of the country. Also, nearly 80 per cent of Malaysians now speak English.”

Sentiments

But hasn’t the recent problem faced by Indian Malaysians with the Malaysian government angered Indians and cooled their desire to holiday in Malaysia?

“Probably it hurt sentiment to a certain extent but the problem has been curbed; Malaysia is a multi-cultural society and our government understands the sentiment in India on this issue,” says Noordin. That is obviously a given, considering that today the Indian market is Malaysia’s sixth-most important source for tourism revenue, with tourist arrivals having gone up by a whopping 51.4 per cent in 2007, over the previous year. Also, Indian tourists’ spending grew by a robust 30 per cent in 2007 compared to 2006.

“They stay for an average 4 days-3 nights, spend on shopping, good food; we find more and more Indians now staying in five-star hotels. Even when they go for the Star Cruise, they take the premium accommodation,” he says.

The Mumbai-based Director of Tourism Malaysia, Manoharan, adds there is no evidence of adverse sentiment on this issue resulting in lesser arrivals, and flights to Malaysia out of India have a load exceeding 90 per cent. Adds Noordin, “Sometime ago, we had the same problem with the Chinese, but that was curbed too; we are very sensitive to such things.”

Explore more

Azizan Noordin

He adds that now that Indian tourists from the metros have sampled Kuala Lampur and Langkawi, Tourism Malaysia is keen to open up for these visitors other regions such as the Borneo side and Sabah. “We now want them to sample the east coast, where the beaches and the mountains beckon. Many Indian tourists also visit Malaysia for niche products such as the Formula One races.”

Pitching the advantage of buying electronic goods in Malaysia, Manoharan says that after a recent promotion campaign for the Indian tourism and travel industry, he was surprised to find two travel agents “returning to India, each with two 40-inch plasma TV sets. I asked them why they were buying these in Malaysia and they said even after paying the customs duty, it would be still cheaper than India. I find many Indians buying their laptops in Malaysia; the electronic goods are about 25 per cent cheaper in Malaysia.”

To those Indians who go to Singapore for shopping, “I have only one request: Ask the Singaporeans where they do their shopping and they’ll tell you they shop in Malaysia.”

But the flip side of booming tourist arrivals, including those from India, points out Noordin, is that when Malaysians travel within the country to visit relatives, “they find they cannot get rooms in good hotels. Habits are changing and now when people visit their relatives they prefer to stay in hotels rather than in their mothers-in-law’s homes!”

Pictures by Azizan Noordin

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