After India allowed regular international passenger flights on March 27 and Malaysia reopened its borders on April 1, the number of flights between the two countries has reached 76 per week compared with about 200 before the pandemic.

More flights are in the offing and this is expected to reduce fares on the Malaysia-India route, Tourism Malaysia officials said.

A Malaysian tourism industry group, comprising travel agents, hoteliers and operators of tourist attractions, kicked off a roadshow in Delhi yesterday.

Besides the Indian capital, roadshows are being organised in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai during the tour from April 18 to 30.

“This is our first major international campaign since the reopening of Malaysia’s borders,” said Manoharan Periasamy, a senior director in Tourism Malaysia’s international promotion division.

“India is one of our important sources of tourists, so this is the right time to conduct such a roadshow.”

The roadshows are aimed at instilling confidence among Indian travellers that Malaysia is fully prepared to welcome back tourists, he said.

“We have received good feedback from the Indian market. As air connectivity grows, fares will come down and more people will travel to Malaysia,” he said.

Sulaiman Suip, director of Tourism Malaysia’s New Delhi office, said AirAsia, Malindo Air and other airlines are planning to connect more Indian cities with Kuala Lumpur this year.

Malaysia recorded 735,309 Indian tourist arrivals in 2019 compared with 600,311 in 2018, according to Malaysian data.

India was the seventh biggest source of foreign arrivals for Malaysia before the pandemic.

Malaysia has removed quarantine requirements for international travellers who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

It requires an RT-PCR test two days before departure and travellers must undergo an RTK-Ag test within 24 hours upon arrival in Malaysia.