As part of its efforts to raise awareness on the celebration of Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) 2014 globally, Tourism Malaysia had embarked on a Sales Mission to Sri Lanka and India this month. Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, Director General, Tourism Malaysia, led the delegation to Mumbai and Delhi while Azizan Noordin, Deputy Director General lead the delegation in Colombo, Kochi and Bengaluru. They were accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, State representatives and members of the Malaysia travel trade fraternity. While the primary objective of the Sales Mission is to strengthen Malaysia’s standing as a dream travel destination and increase tourist arrivals from India and Sri Lanka, Tourism Malaysia is also looking forward to driving strong support from both the Indian media, travel trade and airlines fraternity for the ongoing Visit Malaysia Year 2014.
Malaysia is celebrating its fourth Visit Malaysia Year (VMY 2014) with the theme “Celebrating 1Malaysia Truly Asia” to reflect the diversity in unity of all Malaysians. With the Proboscis Monkey as the mascot for VMY 2014, this will be the biggest and grandest ever tourism celebration with hundreds of events and festivals all lined up to welcome the world.
“India has always been an important market for us. In 2013, a total of 650,989 Indian travellers visited Malaysia, maintaining its position as the sixth top tourist generating market to the country. And this year we are expecting close to 7,80000 to 8 lakh tourists from here. Besides the famous attractions in Kuala Lumpur, we have a plethora of offerings planned to welcome our Indian guests. From being the world’s favourite shopping destination and to having the world’s best beaches, from the most relaxing spa vacations to golfing holidays, from weddings and honeymoon locales and helicopter tours, you can be assured of perfect custom made holiday,” said Taiyab.
During the Sales Mission, Tourism Malaysia also organised travel marts for the travel trade players to meet and network. This is a platform to showcase Malaysia’s diverse tourism offerings and highlight the scope for collaboration between travel agents in Malaysia and India.
Tourist arrivals from Sri Lanka were 64,051 in 2013, which was an increase of 2 per cent against 62,821 tourists in 2012. And with new products and destinations being promoted specifically for the Sri Lankan market, the number is expected to increase to 70,000 this year.
