Tourism Malaysia on six-city promotion tour in India as regular flights grow

NEW DELHI: Tourism Malaysia is on a six-city Indian tour to woo back tourists as the resumption of regular flights between Malaysia and India has boosted travel demand.

Since India allowed regular international passenger flights on March 27 and Malaysia reopened its borders on April 1, the number of flights between the two countries has reached 76 per week compared with about 200 before the pandemic.

More flights are in the offing and this is expected to reduce fares on the Malaysia-India route, Tourism Malaysia officials said.

A Malaysian tourism industry group comprising travel agents, hoteliers and operators of tourist attractions kicked off a roadshow in Delhi on Monday (April 18).

Besides the Indian capital, roadshows are being organised in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai during the April 18-30 tour.

"This is our first major international campaign since the reopening of Malaysia's borders. With India being one of our important sources of tourists, this is the right time to conduct such a roadshow,” said Manoharan Periasamy, a senior director in Tourism Malaysia's international promotion division.

The roadshows aim to instil confidence among Indian travellers that Malaysia is fully prepared to welcome back tourists, he said.

"We have received good feedback from the Indian market. As air connectivity grows, fares will come down and more people will travel to Malaysia," Manoharan said.

Sulaiman Suip, director of Tourism Malaysia's New Delhi office, said AirAsia, Malindo Air and other airlines are planning to connect more Indian cities with Kuala Lumpur this summer.

Malaysia recorded 735,309 Indian tourist arrivals in 2019 compared with 600,311 in 2018, according to Malaysian data.

India was the seventh biggest source of foreign arrivals for Malaysia before the pandemic.

Malaysia has removed quarantine requirements for international travellers who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

It requires an RT-PCR test two days before departure and travellers must undergo an RTK-Ag test within 24 hours upon arrival in Malaysia.- Bernama