Wooing more Indian visitors Malaysia to boost promotional efforts in India’s cities ‘NEW DELHI: Tourism Malaysia will take advantage of the Indian gov- femments move to simplify the travel process for its nationals by intensifying promotional efforts in Indie’s Tier-2 and Tier-3 cites. "ts International Promotion Division senior director Datuk Musa Yusof said besides Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi, the agency had also identified other cities to promote Malaysia asa far. ily leisure and shopping destina- tion. smese cies have potential asthe next growth areas, where Indians fan receve thelr posspors within a Seok, compared to one to two months previously. Blsoincia. has been. showing good GDP grovths of 610 7.5% re pat fev years with the people tnjoping better purchasing power fd takung the opportunity travel overseas he sid. He said other than traditional destinations in peninstla Malays ‘Tourism Malaysia Would also step Lup efforts to promote tourist desti- nations in Sabah and Sarawak. Tan interview in conjunction with the South Asia Travel and ‘Tourism Exchange travel fair here, Musa said about 770,100 Indians visited Malaysia in 2014 and 650,089 in 2013. ‘Malaysia earned RM2.2bil and RML9biL_ respectively from the arrivals, which was a growth of 18.3%, ‘Only 599,820 arrivals were recorded between January and September 2015, a decrease of 496 compared to the same period in 2014. ‘Musa ettributed the drop to two ineldents involving MH370 and ‘MINI7, aswell as the world econom- ‘slowdown, “dlowever, India is still among the top 10 tourist generating markets for Malaysia and we are working losely with local tour operators fand regal airlines to bring in more Visitors from the subcont- neni," headded. — Bernama