Indian tourists to Malaysia on increase: Official

Bangalore, Apr 27 (UNI) Malaysia is emerging as one of the most favoured destinations for Indians with nearly 2.80 lakh of them visiting the country in 2006.

The increase was 23.6 per cent compared to 225,789 visitors in 2005, Mr Noor Arif Mohd Noor, Director Malaysia Tourism told mediapersons here today.

During the first two months of 2007, the number of visitors from India went up by 50.7 per cent at 53,870 he added.

Malaysia attracted nearly 17.54 million tourists last year with tourism receipts for that country being ten billion US Dollar, he said adding the scope for increasing visitors from India was tremendous as corporates were looking to promote the country as part of incentive packages for the employees.

Mr Noor was here in connection with Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) and business travel exposition held in the city.

Organised by the India International Travel Mart, the exposition provided exhibitors to showcase a range of international travel products for the fast emerging MICE industry.

Mr Rohit Hangal, Director of Travel Media Networks, told mediapersons that there was a need for Karnataka to set up a MICE unit to promote Bangalore as one of the major MICE destinations.

The two main bottlenecks currently were high tariff rates of hotels and closure of bars and pubs at 2330 hrs. Bangalore could easily offer weekend packages for MICE, he added.

UNI