Malaysia has been a prominent feature at this year’s Outbound Travel Mart (OTM), hosted in Mumbai from 3-5 February 2020. With the Indian subcontinent projected to contribute upwards of 1 million visitors to Malaysia’s growing tourism sector, the event was a great shop window for the nation’s attractions.
Tourism Malaysia’s delegation at the event was made up of 14 organisations from the travel sector, including eight travel agents, three hotels, Malaysia Airlines, Langkawi Development Authority (LADA). The party was led by Mr Zulkifly Md Said, who is the Deputy Director General (Planning) of Tourism Malaysia.
“India remains one of the top market sources for Malaysia and we hope that more Indian tourists would take the advantage to visit Malaysia as we have many exciting events lined up in conjunction with VM2020,” said Mr. Zulkifly at the event.
OTM is one of the world’s leading travel trade shows, where the industry’s leading operators can showcase their latest products, forge partnerships and drum up new business for the year ahead. This year’s event attracted around 1,000 exhibitors from a total of 55 countries, along with 800 buyers and around 15,000 trade visitors.
The Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign (VM2020) was officially launched at the Malaysian Pavilion at OTM, where the team highlighted their eco-tourism provision, as part of this year’s aim to focus on sustainable tourism in Malaysia. According to their website: “Tourism Malaysia will be pushing more of these products and holding seminars on tourism products and hospitality, filming destinations and weddings. In order to facilitate networking between buyers and sellers, Tourism Malaysia will coordinate B2B meetings as part of the programme.”
India contributed over 600,000 arrivals to Malaysia in 2018, making it the sixth-highest source market for tourists. This was an increase of 8.6% compared to the previous year, and the numbers have continued to grow since, indicating the growth potential of Indian demographics for the Malaysian tourism sector. With visa-free entry for tourists from India for up to 15 days and a range of promotions lined up for 2020, Malaysia hopes to meet its targets bring in a total of 30 million tourist arrivals and RM100 billion in tourist receipts.
Tourists can check Malaysia’s Calendar of Events for 2020 and discover travel inspiration on the official VM2020 website at http://vm2020.malaysia.travel/
