Malaysia is offering incentives for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) travelers from India to attract more such business groups to the country.
Tourism Malaysia officials, who were in Kolkata on Friday for sales meetings with tour operators, said they were also expecting a large number of individual tourists from India after they implemented the visa-free entry from December 1, 2023, for Indian travellers.
“We are offering incentives for MICE travelers. We are receiving advanced bookings till 2030 for MICE groups,” Mohammad Isa Abdul Halim, director, meeting and support incentives, Malaysia Exhibition and Convention Bureau, said.
The incentives include partial sponsorship for hall rental, cultural performances and dinners.
Between 2023 and 2030, 351 MICE events have been pre-booked in Malaysia and 48 per cent of those are from India, Abdul Halim said.
“The average per head personal expense is more for a MICE traveler. A MICE traveler spends 7,428 Ringit Malaysia (Rs 1.3 lakh approximately) against around 3,000 RM (Rs 52,000 approximately) spent by an individual tourist,” he said.
The average stay for a MICE traveller is five nights, compared to three nights for an individual tourist, he said.
Akmal Aziz, acting director, Tourism Malaysia, north and east India, said they were expecting a huge growth in tourists from India after the visa-free entry policy for Indians.
Indian travelers can now enter Malaysia without a visa and stay for a period of 30 days at a stretch. The policy is valid till December 31, 2024 as of now. Aziz said a travellers are saving
Rs 3,000 that they earlier would have to pay as visa fee.
Between January and November 2023, 5,87,000 Indians have travelled to Malaysia, 10 percent of them from Kolkata, he said. There was a 27.8 per cent increase in the total number compared to the same period in 2022.
“We are confident that the number would increase many times from December after the visa-free entry. Hotel bookings in Malaysia by tourists from India has increased rapidly. Earlier, hotel bookings would start at least seven days in advance. Now, people are booking three days in advance, which means last-minute bookings have gone up,” said Aziz.
Tour operators in Kolkata said they were seeing a rise in bookings for Malaysia.
“We are seeing a 25 per cent rise in bookings for Malaysia compared to last year. We expect it to go up further during the travel seasons,” said Anil Punjabi, national committee member of Travel Agents Federation of India, representing east.