Positioning Malaysia as a “premier holiday destination”, the Malaysian Government is now targeting the large potential base of first-time travellers from tier-II and tier-III cities in India.
Launching a new tourism initiative – ‘One Malaysia, endless experiences’ campaign — in the city today, the Malaysian Tourism Minister, Ms Ng Yen Yen, said Malaysia was keen to explore possible tourism, investment and cultural exchanges between the two countries.
According to the Minister, India is the second largest tourist generating market outside the Asean region for Malaysia. India contributes 10 per cent of the non-Asean arrivals. It grew by 317 per cent from 1.32 lakh in 2000 to 5.5 lakh in 2008. “For the period between January-July 2009, the number of Indian tourists arrivals was at 3.33 lakh.
More flights
To promote tourism, Malaysia has come out with a multi-pronged strategy: It is planning to increase the flight frequency between the two countries; new tourism package offers and easier visa formalities. Elaborating on this, the Minister said apart from all major international carriers’ direct or indirect connectivity to Malaysia, the Malaysian national carrier, Malaysia Airlines offers 27 weekly flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Additionally, Malaysia’s economy carrier Air Asia currently offers direct daily flights from Tiruchi.
This connectivity will be further enhanced with the addition of the fourth Malaysian Airlines flight from Hyderabad and Air Asia’s addition of a second daily flight from Tiruchi. On the visa formalities, Ms Yen said the visa processing time will be brought down to 24 hours from the current “three working days”.
Highlighting the features of the ‘One Malaysia’ campaign, Mr Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, Director-General, Tourism Malaysia, said the four-day and three-night holiday package would aim at delivering different tourism products at a “value-for-money” price proposition.
“The idea is to cater to wider segments of travellers. The package priced in the range of Rs 17,000-19,500 would include return airfare and accommodation. “The key feature of this package is the seamless travel opportunity from five cities in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) to any place in Malaysia,” said Mr Taiyab. According to him, the package is jointly offered by Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia airlines and hospitality partners in Malaysia.
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