The disappearance of a Malaysian airplane with 239 people on board did not have an impact on Indian tourists visiting Malaysia, rather the number of tourists was increasing, a Malaysian Minister said today.
"There is no decline. And it is increasing. People from all part of the world have been coming to Malaysia. It (the incident) is not something we wanted to happen. Despite that, the arriving of people continue to increase in Malaysia," said Dr Zambry Bin Abdul Kadir, Chief Minister of Perak, Malaysia.
Considered to be one of the world's biggest aviation mysteries, a Malaysian Airplane Boeing 777, on its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 went missing midair over the Indian ocean.
Last week, the grieving families of the 239 people marked the first anniversary of the incident with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowing not to give up on the search for the wreckage of the aircraft.
Elaborating on the number of tourists visiting Malaysia and to Perak, his home State, he said the number of visa applications from Tamil Nadu alone has gone up on a daily basis.
"The application for visas alone is 1,200 on a daily basis, compared to less than 1,000 applications processed a year back. Quite a number of people fly from here to Malaysia and also from Malaysia to Chennai," he said.
As part of attracting more tourists, he said his Government was working with the Ministry of Tourism to provide holiday packages. "We are also working closely with the Ministry of Tourism. The Ministry of Tourism provides all packages for tourism in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year," he said.
