‘The show must go on’, says Malaysia
Tourism Malaysia organised multi- city roadshows to celebrate ‘Visit Malaysia Year 2014’, and has set targets to triple the tourist growth by 2020 from India.
When the world is still puzzled about the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft MH370; Tourism Malaysia is focussing on attracting Indians to the country. According to Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, Director General, Tourism Malaysia; it’s a tragic incident, but this won’t impact travel between India and Malaysia. During the ‘Visit Malaysia 2014’ showcase in Mumbai, Taiyab said, “Accidents happen. The search is still on. Nobody can say exactly where the plane is. It does not mean that everything should come to a standstill. The show must go on. Business must go on. Airlines need to continue to operate flights.”
Kick-started in Kochi, the promotional campaign moved to Bengaluru, Mumbai and concluded in New Delhi. Alongside the promotions, a trade show was also organised for the Indian travel trade showcasing over 40 suppliers from Malaysia. Taiyab said, “Travel agents are our topmost priority and we continue to keep them abreast with latest tourism offerings of Malaysia. We intend to welcome every segment of traveller with any type of budget. India has grown from a ‘price-conscious’ market to ‘ value- conscious’ market. With growing number of outbound travel, we aim to tap the best market opportunities and are positive to receive three times more tourist arrivals from India than the current numbers by 2020.”
Taiyab also informed that despite the incident, the arrival figures from India look stable. Malaysia welcomed 6,50,989 Indian arrivals in 2013 and through the ‘Visit Malaysia 2014’ celebration year, it is expecting to welcome close to 7,80,000 to eight lakh tourists. During the year-round celebrations, Malaysia has organised more than 250 events, festivals and fairs to engage global tourists with Malaysia. Tourism revenue for Malaysia showed 8.1 per cent rise in 2013 at RM65.44 billion. The total tourist arrivals rose by 2.7 percent to 25 million. The country is expecting 28 million tourists this year and 36 million by 2020.