The Malaysian delegation headed by The Honourable Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture Malaysia together with 24 tour agents, 11 hotel/resort operators, 4 tourism product owners, three airline operators, 4 state tourism board, one medical tourism member, one visa solution consultant along with several officials from Tourism Malaysia.
Tourism Malaysia returns to India’s largest tourism fair, South Asia’s Travel & Tourism Exchange (SATTE), Delhi NCR for the nineteenth year. The three-day event, from 9 to 11 February 2023, was a continuous effort to keep Malaysia as the preferred tourism destination in the minds of Indian travellers.
At SATTE this year, Tourism Malaysia aimed to focus on niche products such as shopping, golfing, luxury tourism, soft tourism, theme parks and honeymoon packages. On top of that, emerging segments such as weddings and film-induced tourism are also being promoted to Indians as a destination of choice. With more than 35,000 trade visitors expected, the event will anticipate a significant increase in Indian tourists to Malaysia and promote stronger cooperation between tour operators and members of the tourism fraternity.
The Malaysian delegation headed by The Honourable Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture Malaysia together with 24 tour agents, 11 hotel/resort operators, 4 tourism product owners, three airline operators, 4 state tourism boards, one medical tourism member, one visa solution consultant along with several officials from Tourism Malaysia.
Just recently, from 30th January to 7th February 2023, Tourism Malaysia together with the Malaysia Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) has just concluded a roadshow campaign across five main cities in India, namely Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
“In 2019, before the pandemic, we welcomed 382,916 tourist arrivals from India with MYR3.6 million in tourist expenditure, while between January and September 2022, about 187,037 Indian tourists visited Malaysia. This year, we intend to achieve the arrival target of 15.6 million international tourists with MYR47.6 billion in tourism receipts. Out of that, we are optimistic about more than 400,000 tourist arrivals from the Indian market. We do hope this market will continue to play an important role in achieving this number,” said The Honourable Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan.
He added, “We will leverage the niche product segment which could be a big platform for Malaysia, especially as a preferred wedding destination from the Indian market. Additionally, we are keen to promote Malaysia as a destination of choice for film-induced tourism. A lot of incentives are being provided should one comes to do the filming in Malaysia ”. India remains an important market for Malaysia. In terms of connectivity, there are currently 169 flights per week with more than 29,000 seats from India to Malaysia via Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air (formerly known as Malindo Air), AirAsia, and IndiGo.
