Malaysia hopeful of high Indian tourist footfalls this year

KOCHI: Malaysia is expecting around 8 lakh Indian tourists to visit the country this year as it celebrates Visit Malaysia Year (VMY)2014. Malaysia is gearing up to welcome tourists from all over the world by lining up a series of events and festivals.

Malaysia Tourism deputy director general (planning) Dato Azizan Noordin, who is heading a sales mission to select places in India, said 6,50,989 Indian tourist visited Malaysia in 2013." India is an important market for us and is the sixth top tourist generating market to the country," he said.

The sales mission aims to strengthen the presence of Malaysia in the South Asian market as dream travel destination. Tourism revenue for Malaysia showed 8.1% rise in 2013 at RM 65.44 billion. The total tourist arrivals rose by 2.7 per cent to 25 million. The country is expecting 28 million tourists this year.

He said Malaysia conducts VMY whenever the arrivals reach a plateau." Last time it was held in 2007 and there was a quantum jump in the tourist arrivals," he said. Malaysia is targeting 36 million tourists by 2020.