TravTalk India Online Magazine
The newly appointed Director of Tourism Malaysia, Noriah Jaafar, is gung-ho about the India market. Her main focus is to tap millennials and further develop the weddings and M!CE market from the country.
Hazel Jain
She is the new face of Malaysia in India. As the new India Director of Tourism Malaysia, Noriah Jaafar took over her new office only this June. She has a clear target in sight. Sharing arrival numbers, she says, “Pre-COVID in 2019, we saw 735,309 tourist arrivals from India and currently from January to April 2023, we have welcomed 164,566 arrivals into Malaysia. Our target for this year is to reach 462,000 arrivals from India. As an international source market for Malaysia, India ranked number four in 2022. This makes India a very important market for us. We now want to promote Malaysia beyond Kuala Lumpur and Genting. Indian travellers already know these two destinations, so we want them to explore newer places in Malaysia now, such as Langkawi, Penang, as well as the Borneo side of Malaysia that include Sarawak and Sabah. We believe that Indian travellers are ready to see and experience new and offbeat destinations and attractions. They now like to immerse themselves in destinations and the unique experiences they have on offer.”
Malaysia offers caving activities such as at Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak. Visitors can also experience the longest water slide at Escape Theme Park in Penang. Malaysia also has good diving spots and a unique attraction called The Sky Mirror Kuala Selangor, which is a natural phenomenon.
“We will be organising a big roadshow in August this year in five tier-II cities in India where we will bring local sellers and DMCs to meet Indian agents. We will be touching Amritsar, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar, Raipur, and Pune. The reason we chose these cities is because they show great potential, and we can already see a lot of demand coming from these pockets. More importantly, the buying power of Indians has increased. The first leg of the roadshow included the metros of Mumbai, Delhi, and Ahmedabad, so this time we want to reach out to agents in tertiary cities to share more information about the destination,” Jaafar adds.
Millennials and Gen Z
Based on the current situation, there is a change of demand in India’s outbound markets towards experiential and special interest tourism. There is also a change in tourist behaviour, which indicates a move away from mass group holidays to more personalised holidays. She adds, “Millennials and Gen Zs are our key target audience today. They are also decision-makers today and spend a lot of money on experiences such as travel. Moreover, since they are very active on social media to showcase their experiences while in Malaysia, they indirectly become our ambassadors.”
Weddings are a huge focus
Weddings are also a huge focus for Malaysia right now. “We want to promote Malaysia as a top wedding destination. For this, we will be participating in the Wedding Travel Show in Udaipur. We are ready to accept weddings, as we now understand all the requirements that they need. We have already received some 3-4 weddings at Lexis luxury resort,” she adds.
M!CE, particularly incentive groups, is also key. “In the past, incentive groups would spend around three to four nights, which has gone up to four to five nights in Malaysia. For the FITs, it has gone up to seven to eight nights now,” Jaafar adds. Malaysia has announced Visit Malaysia Year in 2026 and will soon begin promoting it in India.
Arrival numbers from India
- 2018: 600,311
- 2019: 735,309
- 2020: 3,916 (COVID period)
- 2021: 187,037
- 2022: 324,548 (April – December)
- 2023: 164,566 (January – April)
- 2023 target: 462,000
