As part of its efforts to raise awareness on Malaysia as a destination of choice, Tourism Malaysia successfully concluded its Sales Mission to India and Sri Lanka between February 25 and March 3, 2016. The nine day sales mission covered the Indian cities of Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Colombo in Sri Lanka.
Leading the Malaysian delegation was Dato’ Daljit Singh, who is the Indian Community Relations Advisor to the Minister of Tourism & Culture Malaysia and a member of Tourism Malaysia Board of Directors. He was accompanied by senior officials from the Tourism board. The delegation also comprised of 57 representatives from 16 travel agents/tour operators, 10 hotels/resorts, six tourism products/attractions, two state tourism authorities, and four airlines. Some of the notable delegates included Genting Malaysia Bhd, Legoland Malaysia Resort, Sunway Lagoon, Tourism Johor, Tourism Selangor, Malaysia Airlines, Malindo Air, and AirAsia.
The sales mission serves as an excellent platform to engage with the local media and update them on the latest tourism developments and products, as well as to network with the local tour operators, product owners and airlines. It is expected to increase tourist arrivals and receipts from the South Asian market during the peak travelling season from May to July.
The South Asian market is important to Malaysia, contributing 1.3 million tourists in 2014. India remained its top 10 arrivals in the same year, ranking sixth with a total of 770,108 tourists, while Sri Lanka recorded 61,670 tourists. In 2015, Malaysia welcomed 722,141 Indians and 51,337 Sri Lankans to the country.
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. Malaysia’s tourism sector continued to be a significant contributor to the country’s economy in 2015. Global tourist arrivals were at 25.7 million with receipts up to RM 69.1 billion.
