Malaysia & India are in talks to jointly promote rural tourism, which is becoming a stylish outing for vacation makers.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen, who is currently in India, broached the idea of rural homestay programme to her Indian counterpart Kumari Selja Monday.
Dr Ng, who is here to promote Malaysia as a favourite tourist location to Indian holiday-makers, said there were 146 Malaysian villagers offering adventurous homestay programme to foreigners, which is rapid becoming popular among Europeans travellers.
"We should look in to a memorandum of understanding to boost rural tourism. India & Malaysia can be a building bridge for this sector," Dr Ng told Kumari, India's Minister of Tourism, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation.
"A(H1N1) has its negative impact & they're taking it seriously," he said.
Allaying fears of the Influenza A(H1N1), he said it was a problem but the disease had not affected tourist arrivals in the country & had in fact increased by 3.9 percent during January-July this year compared to the same period last year.
An estimated 22 million tourists landed on Malaysia's shores last year, of which 500,000 were from India, & for this year the ministry had pegged an additional 100,000 from the Indian market.
Last year Indian tourists spent nearly RM1.5 billion during their visit to Malaysia.
In Delhi, Dr Ng also launched the "1Malaysia, limitless Experiences" marketing campaign to woo Indian travellers.
Under the vacation package, travel from anywhere in India to Kuala Lumpur would cost only Rp17,000 (RM1,259).
No comments:
Post a Comment