Tourism Malaysia, the travel promotion body of the South East Asian nation, today said it is targeting a 10 per cent increase in visitors from India this year.
"We are focusing on India in a big way. We are aiming to increase the number of travellers from India to our country by over 10 per cent this year to 6.5 lakh, from 5.9 lakh in 2009," Malaysia Tourism Director General Dato Mirza Mohammad Taiyab Beg told reporters here.
The agency is targeting prospective tourists from cities like Kolkata and Ahmedabad, which were not in the radar so far.
"Indians currently rank in the sixth position among the number of inbound tourists to Malaysia, but if one looks at only those who take the air route then Indians are at number two after China," Beg said.
To achieve this, the agency would connect three more Indian cities by direct flights to the country by May.
Air Asia will be introducing direct flight from Kuala Lampur to three Indian cities by May, he said without disclosing any details.
Currently Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Trichy are connected by daily and weekly flights by Air India, Malaysian Airlines and Jet Airways.