Tourism Malaysia Targets Tourists From India After Borders Reopen

By Anthony Tan
VIRGIN Communications
email: anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk 

As of March 27, 2022, India has opened its sky for regular international flight operations while Malaysia reopened its borders effective April 1. 

Tourism Malaysia was quick to seize the opportunity to initiate its marketing and promotional roadshow to six cities in India from April 17 to 30. 

Led by Manoharan Periasamy (Picture Left), Tourism Malaysia Senior Director of the International Promotion Division (South Asia & Africa), the roadshow kick-started with New Delhi. 

It will be followed by Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai. India, being a top source market for Malaysia, contributed 735,309 tourist arrivals in 2019. 

Currently, there are over 14,000 seats available weekly between India and Malaysia through Malaysia Airlines, Malindo Air, AirAsia, IndiGo and Air India Express. Flights between the two countries has now reached 76 per week compared with about 200 flights weekly before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Manoharan, a veteran in the Indian outbound market, remarks, “This is the right time to be back in India. Planning for this roadshow is very opportune. The resumption of scheduled international flights from India coincided with the reopening of Malaysia’s international borders.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Indian travellers back to our shores as we have many exciting, new value-driven and action-packed itineraries.

“There is so much to explore after two years, especially with the newly opened outdoor theme park, Genting SkyWorld in Pahang and the refurbished Sunway Resort in Kuala Lumpur.”

Group photo of some members of the delegation
Photo credit to MATTA member

Besides instilling confidence among the Indian travellers that it is safe to visit Malaysia, another objective of the roadshow is to provide a platform for its local industry players to bounce back and recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Those participating in the roadshow comprised 22 travel agents specialising in inbound tourists from India, four hoteliers, four product owners and three Malaysia-based airlines. See the list below. 

Tourism Malaysia targets to attract two million international tourist arrivals and RM6.8 billion in tourism receipts for 2022.

Malaysia is now open for quarantine-free travel for fully-vaccinated international tourists. Those from India can apply for Malaysia’s eVISA online. Among the standard operating procedures for travelling to Malaysia are they are required to take a RT-PCR test two days before their departure to Malaysia. Upon their arrival, they must undergo a professionally administered RTK-Antigen test within 24 hours.

PARTICIPANTS IN THE ROADSHOW TO INDIA

Travel agencies 

Asia Region Holidays Sdn Bhd
Asian Season Travel Sdn Bhd
Asian Famous Tours & Travels
Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel Sdn Bhd
Asian World Holidays Sdn Bhd
Azuki Tours Sdn Bhd
Bary Tours Sdn Bhd
Bel Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd
D’Mart Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd
Destination Explore Sdn Bhd
Devoyager Global Tours Sdn Bhd
Eco Coach & Tours (M) Sdn
Exotic Asia Holidays Travel Tours Sdn Bhd
Friendly Vacations Sdn.Bhd and Travel DMC Group
Hibiscus Travel & Tours Sdn
One Holidays Above Sdn Bhd
RV Holidays Sdn Bhd
The Traveller Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Taj Tours (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Tourland Travel Sdn Bhd
U2 Travels and Tours Sdn Bhd
United Travels & Tours Sdn

Hotels/Resorts

Hospitality 360 Sdn Bhd
Sunway City Kuala Lumpur Hotels
Lexis Hotels & Resorts
Shangri-La Group

Tourism Products & Attractions 

Resorts World Genting
Sunway Lagoon Sdn Bhd
Legoland Malaysia Resort
Desaru Coast

Airlines

Malaysia Airlines
Malindo Air
AirAsia

Others

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