Limited Flights Among Challenges Faced In Attracting Indian Tourists To Malaysia - Tourism And Culture Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) -- The limited number of flights between India and Malaysia is among the challenges faced in attracting more tourists from that country, said Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz. He said the national carrier, Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) only operated flights to the Chennai International Airport and Mumbai. "MAS is not aggressive about flying to certain places, and there are places that MAS used to fly to which have since been closed," he said during the Question-and-Answer session at the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysian Parliament) on Tuesday. Mohamed Nazri was replying to questions from V.Sivakumar on Malaysia-India relations in promoting tourism and culture respectively, and the number of tourists from both countries. Mohamed Nazri said in a move to promote tourist arrivals from India to this country, the government had introduced visa exemption starting from April 1 to March 30 next year, for short-term visits of less than 15 days. He added that the total number of Indian tourists to Malaysia last year was 638,578 people, an 11.6 per cent decrease compared to 722,141 in 2015. -- BERNAMA