NEW DELHI, Feb 25 — Malacca is on a drive to attract more tourists from India to the UNESCO World Heritage City, says Malacca Tourism’s Promotion Division general manager, Abdul Kadir Md Idris. “This is one of the reasons for the visit (of Malacca Governor Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob) to India — to promote Malacca as a tourist destination,” Abdul Kadir told Bernama.
Tun Mohd Khalil was on a recent visit to Chennai, the capital of southern state Tamil Nadu.
Abdul Kadir said Malacca was promoting the state as a “Must See Destination” in Malaysia. Last year, Malacca received 14.3 million tourists from around the world. Of these, 12,680 were from India.
Malacca had suffered a drop of 10 per cent in the number tourists from India visiting the state.
Abdul Kadir said there were many holiday packages that were offered from Chennai and Trichy, starting from Rs30,000 (RM1,590) for three nights and four days’ stay.
Tun Mohd Khalil said the visit to Chennai was also to reinforce the ties between the two nations by exchanging information on various fields such as history, culture, business as well as youth tourism.
He said Malacca was ideal for tourists from South India. It had distinct advantages in tradition, culture, cuisines and lifestyle. Malacca was a melting pot of cultures, and it had traces of various periods of colonial rule, from the Portuguese, Dutch and British administrations.
The delegation held several cultural activities as well as served Malaysian delicacies.
Malacca is seeking to attract 15 million tourists to the state this year.
“Visit Historic Malacca means Visit Malaysia” was the theme of the mission. — Bernama
