Tourism Malaysia officials visit Colombo

Tourism Malaysia embarked on a sales mission to India and Sri Lanka. The nine-day sales mission covered the Indian cities of Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Colombo in Sri Lanka, as part of its efforts to raise awareness on Malaysia as a destination of choice.

Leading the Malaysian delegation was Dato' Daljit Singh, the Indian Community Relations Advisor to the Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia and a member of the Tourism Malaysia Board of Directors.

He was accompanied by senior officials of the Tourism board. The delegation of 57 included 16 travel agents and tour operators and representatives of Genting Malaysia Bhd, Legoland Malaysia Resort, Sunway Lagoon, Tourism Johor, Tourism Selangor, Malaysia Airlines, Malindo Air, and AirAsia.

The sales mission served as a platform to engage with the local media and update them on the latest tourism development and products, and to network with local tour operators, product owners and airlines to increase tourist arrivals and receipts from the South Asian market during the peak travelling season from May to July.

The South Asian market is important to Malaysia, having contributed 1.3 million tourists in 2014. India remained in its top 10 arrivals in the same year, ranking sixth with 770,108 tourists, while Sri Lanka recorded 61,670 tourists. In 2015, Malaysia welcomed 722,141 Indians and 51,337 Sri Lankans to the country.

Malaysia's tourism sector was a significant contributor to its economy last year. The number of global tourist arrivals was at 25. 7 million with receipts up to RM 69.1 billion.