KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia will relax visa rules for travellers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in an effort to boost tourism, an official said Tuesday.
At present visitors from the four countries need to obtain a visa before entering Malaysia, after the government in 2008 scrapped a tourist-friendly visa programme for them in a bid to curb illegal immigration.
Under the new rules, they can visit the country without a visa while transiting to another country, Tourism Malaysia director-general Mirza Mohammad Taiyab told AFP.
"It will be easier for them to holiday in Malaysia with this transit pass. We hope there won't be any abuse," he added, saying that the government had yet to decide how long visitors would be allowed to stay.
He said combined tourist arrivals from the four countries stood at 1.59 million last year, led by Bangladesh with 887,443 visitors.
Malaysia in 2006 introduced a visa-on-arrival scheme for visitors from 24 countries to promote tourism, one of the country's main foreign exchange earners.
Immigration officials however called for it to be scrapped after many visitors were found to have overstayed, the majority of them reportedly Indians who remained to work in restaurants and on plantations.
Malaysia recorded 7.62 million tourist arrivals between January and April this year, up from 7.34 million in the same period last year.
On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the Government had decided to reinstate, from July 1, the 'transit without visa' offer to travellers from the four countries after considering the advantage it would offer in terms of attracting more tourists from the region.
He added Malaysia previously offered a similar privilege to travellers from the Indian sub-continent but it was later revoked.
“The Home Ministry has suggested some methods that will avoid abuse of the facility.“We will discuss them with our local airline companies as we will need their cooperation for the offer to work,” he told a press conference after chairing the Cabinet Committee on Tourism meeting here.
It is understood that Malaysia is targeting an additional 8,000 to 10,000 visitors this year through the move that will only be offered to travellers with tickets for connecting flights.
Muhyiddin said the committee also agreed yesterday to the Tourism Ministry's proposal to increase accessibility to the country and had asked local airlines - Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and AirAsia-X - to seek more landing rights abroad.
He added the committee had asked for promotions to attract tourists from the Middle East during the fasting month of Ramadan.
The committee also endorsed the proposal to add parks and gardens in Malaysia to the list of tourism sites and asked the ministry to work with the Housing and Local Government Ministry to look into upgrading them.
Tourism Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen, who was present at the press conference, told reporters that parks and gardens are not listed as tourist attractions even though many travellers love visiting such places. — Malaysian Mirror
Source : http://www.malaysianmirror.com/
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