Indian tourists flock to Malaysia as visa exemption leads to record-breaking visits | Representational Image
Mumbai: For the first time, Malaysia is set to record over one million Indian tourists in a year after the country’s implementation of visa-free policy. Indian tourists in Malaysia have already crossed the highest-ever figure with a record-breaking 8.15 lakh Indians visiting Malaysia until September while Malaysian tourism authority targets for a total of 1.2 million tourists by year-end.
After the High Commission of Malaysia in New Delhi announced visa exemption for Indian tourists from December 2023, the number of Indian tourists in Malaysia has seen a steep rise. According to Tourism Malaysia, the Southeast-Asian country has recorded 8.15 lakh Indian tourists till September which broke the highest record of around 7 lakh Indian tourists visiting Malaysia in 2019.
Noriah Jaafar, the director of Tourism Malaysia in Western and Central India, told The Free Press Journal that after Malaysia saw the jump in number of Indian tourists post visa exemption, it has increased the target of Indian tourists from 1 million to 1.2 million by the end of the year when visa exemption ends.
“We have never achieved the number of one million Indian tourists but this year we are hopeful that the numbers will cross a million for the first time ever. Tourism has shown good improvement post covid and the visa exemption has proved to be impactful seeing the rise in Indian and Chinese tourists,” said Jaafar.
Notably, Malaysia has also implemented the visa exemption for China and Chinese keeping in mind the number of Chinese tourists, which are over three times than Indians. As of now, Malaysia records around 3 million Chinese tourists, who visit various parts of the countries given China’s close geographical proximity to Malaysia.
Tourism Malaysia is also working on increasing the average visit time of Indian tourists from four nights to seven nights. According to Jaafar, an average Indian tourist, that visits the country for four nights, spends Malaysia Ringgit (MYR) 5,000, which equals to INR Rs. 97,837. The tourism body of Malaysia is also aiming to attract tourists to spend more time in Malaysia by dropping dual or triple destination travel itinerary.
Malaysia has also announced Visit Malaysia 2026 initiative which targets to attract 35.6 million foreign tourists with the main focus on Indian tourists. The strategic plan revolves around the theme of ‘Sustainable and Culturally Rich Destination’ highlighting Tourism Malaysia’s tagline of ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’.
“Our target of 35.6 million tourists is a big number which has never been achieved before. We will be implementing various strategies to ensure that we achieve our target. The numbers of Indian tourists that we record currently are mostly because of Malaysia Airlines and we are aiming at Indian airlines to increase their connectivity with Malaysia,” added Jaafar.
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