Tourism Malaysia, Malindo promote Malaysia's tier two cities in India

Tourism Malaysia and Malindo Air are jointly promoting Malaysia's tier two cities to the North Indian market through a familiarisation trip for 10 selected travel agents. "The travel agents are members of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) and have been selling travel packages for Malaysia," Tourism Malaysia Director Amran Abdul Rahman, who is based in New Delhi, said. Malindo Air is sponsoring the air tickets for both international and domestic sectors. The familiarisation trip starting tomorrow covers tourist destinations in Langkawi and Kuantan, he told Bernama in an interview here today. The East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia has been earmarked as a key sector to attract more tourists from North India, he said. "Well trotted destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Genting, Penang, Legoland and Melaka will still be promoted. "Kuching and Kota Kinabalu will also be promoted as a long-term strategy to attract more tourists from North India," he said. This is the first time that OTOAI is doing a familiarisation trip with a foreign national tourism organisation. "It shows the good relationship between Tourism Malaysia and India's tourism industry as well as the positive response from here towards tourist attractions in Malaysia," said Amran. Last year, a total of 650,989 Indian travellers visited Malaysia. This year, Tourism Malaysia is expecting close to between 780,000 and 800,000 tourists from India, the sixth top tourist generating market for Malaysia.