Tourism Malaysia is on a sales mission to India from 28 February to 11 March 2010. Led by Director-General, Dato' Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, the delegation consists of 18 tour operators, 11 hotels, several restaurants and state tourism development authorities, and they will visit Cochin, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata to promote Malaysia as a premier travel destination.

The objectives of the sales mission are:
1. To strengthen the presence of Malaysia in the India market;
2. To keep the Indian counterparts abreast of recent tourism developments in Malaysia including its new tourism marketing direction;
3. To promote MICE, MM2H and various niche tourism products

During the sales mission, Dato' Mirza will meet key tour operators in all six cities to discuss and explore areas for collaboration to attract more Indian tourists to Malaysia. He will also make a courtesy visit to the High Commissioner of Malaysia, Dato' Tan Seng Sung. A meeting with Creative Director of Chotti Bahu, ZEE TV Productions, has also been arranged to discuss filming opportunities in Malaysia.

Last year, during a visit to India, the Minister of Tourism, Dato' Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen, had launched the Kuoni Academy of Training -- an endeavour of the Kuoni Travel Group India, the largest travel company in the country, to provide expertise and skills relevant to the travel and tourism industry. During his visit, Dato' Mirza will be paying the academy in Mumbai and New Delhi a call to award them the Malaysia Certificate Programme.

This sales mission is the first in which Air Asia is partnering with Tourism Malaysia. The low-cost carrier currently flies 35 times weekly to four Indian cities, i.e. Tiruchirappalli, Kochi, Kolkata and Trivandrum. They will launch new routes from Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia to Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad in several stages this year.

Currently, flights between India and Malaysia are served by Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia, Air India, Air India Express, Egypt Airlines and Jet Airways. Malaysia Airlines has 29 weekly flights connecting Malaysia and Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

Tourism Performance

A total of 23.65 million tourist arrivals to Malaysia were registered in 2009 compared to 22.05 million in 2008, indicating an increase of 7.2%. Tourists from India constituted 2.5% (589,838 tourists). This represented a 7.1% increase from the previous year's arrival of 550,738.

For more information, please contact South Asia/West Asia/Africa Division, Tourism Malaysia, Tel: 03-2615 8365 / 03-2615 8188; Fax: 03-2693 0207 or Email: enq-southeastasia@tourism.gov.my.