Malaysia's Melaka State Aims For One Million Indonesian Tourists In 2017

FROM AZEMAN ARIFFIN JAKARTA, Jan 20 (Bernama) -- The Melaka government is confident of drawing one million tourists from Indonesia in 2017 due to aggressive promotion by the Melaka Tourism Council. Chief Minister Idris Haron said the Melaka government had adopted various promotional and marketing strategies including using information technology. "Telekom Malaysia is working with the Melaka government to promote "Visit Melaka 755" which offer prizes to tourists registered with "Augmented Reality," he told reporters when opening the Melaka Tourism and Travel Mart seminar in conjunction with the Melaka tourism promotion mission here, Thursday. Indonesia is the largest tourism market for Malaysia. Some 2.45 million tourists from Indonesia visited Malaysia last year. Out of the 2.45 million Indonesian tourists, some 678,572 visited Melaka IN 2016, an increase of 14.75 percent compared to 2015. Idris said most Indonesian tourists chose to visit Melaka for its health tourism products and services. "We are negotiating with Indonesian airline Express Air for direct flights from Jakarta to Batu Berendam Airport, Melaka in an effort to increase the number of tourists. The Melaka government also plans to develop infrastructure projects including seven world class ports along the state's 73 kilometre coastline. -- BERNAMA