Malaysia targets Sri Lankan tourists
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Malaysia wants to do more to woo Sri Lankan tourists to its shores. Some 31,000 Sri Lankan tourists visited Malaysia last year, Bernama said, but optimistic Malaysian tourism promoters were quoted saying that the figure could multiply in the future.
“There has been a lot of positive response. Tourism flow from Sri Lanka to Malaysia grew by 58.6% and until this July, 24,000 people have visited Malaysia,” Tourism Malaysia’s Director for India, P. Manoharan, told Bernama. “We have very good accessibility with 11 direct flights out of Colombo every week, so accessibility is not an issue,” he added.
SriLankan Airlines flies seven times to Malaysia every week, while Malaysia Airlines has four weekly flights. In addition, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways have indirect flights connecting to Kuala Lumpur.
Despite the civil war that has ravaged the island for more than two decades, more Sri Lankans are travelling abroad – about 860,000 last year compared to 700,000 in 2005, the report said.
According to Manoharan, Malaysia was targeting the leisure market and the corporate sector.
“We have a lot to offer, from shopping, holiday destinations to our cuisine which is much similar to theirs, and we are competitively priced as well,” he was quoted saying.
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