Indian holidaymakers choose Malaysia
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Malaysia has emerged as one of the top travel destinations in Asia Pacific for Indian travellers, according to the Visa-Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Asia Pacific Travel Intentions Survey 2010. When asked to name the destination they would consider visiting in the next two years, respondents from India ranked Malaysia (46%) ahead of other Asia Pacific countries and territories such as Australia (38%) and Hong Kong (34%).
Malaysia welcomed 5.9 lakh Indian tourists in the year 2009; and has set an ambitious target of 6.5 lakh visitors from India for 2010, a growth of 10% over 2009. Tourism Malaysia also aims at increasing the length of stay from the present levels of 6.5 days to 7.5 days. The Malaysian travel industry will see this as a highly promising signal from a source market which is only in its infancy and set to explode over the coming decades as the middle class swells and leisure travel becomes a cultural expectation as it is in western societies.
According to the survey, in choosing a destination for an overseas vacation, the top draws for travellers from India are natural scenery, new places and sunshine and beaches. The majority of travellers from India will be married and prefer to stay at three-star hotels as compared with other types of accommodation. They will also likely budget more than US$2,000 for their next holiday and are prepared to pay more to visit exotic destinations and for good food.
Stuart Tomlinson, Country Manager, Malaysia, Visa, said: “With India now the sixth largest source market for inbound tourism to Malaysia, these survey findings are very timely indeed. Malaysia and India forged closer ties recently with six bilateral agreements, one of which was in field of tourism, so the tourism potential between these two countries is tremendous.”
Comments are closed.