Implement direct Visa-on-arrival for Indian tourists

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) has expressed concern over the recent month-long service disruption of the e-VISA portal which has resulted in losses of more than RM 20 – 30
million.

Datuk Tan Kok Liang, President of MATTA said that apart from ASEAN, India is now the top contributor to foreign arrivals into Malaysia with 71,481 Indian tourists arrivals between January to June 2022 alone.

They are given to understand that, in September, approximately 23,000 Indian tourists opted to travel to Bali instead of Malaysia due to the difficulties in securing a Visa to Malaysia.

MATTA together with Tourism Malaysia has organized a number of highly successful roadshows to India over the last few months and the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) convention was recently held in Kuching to promote Borneo to the tourist Indian markets.

Three visa centers were setup in Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai during the service disruption in an attempt to compensate for the situation.

Given the vastness of the Indian subcontinent, opening only three visa centers is far from practical.

If Malaysia is to remain competitive and attractive to such lucrative markets they have to look at more practical long-term measures.

As such the government must consider the immediate benefits of implementing a direct visa-on-arrival facility for Indian tourists, Tan added.

Thailand and Indonesia already provides visa-on-arrival facilities to Indian tourist

« Back to Page

• MATTA partners with Tourism Malaysia

• MATTA partners with Malaysia Aviation Group’s (MAG) airlines

• MATTA urges to remove flight travel package from consumer tribunal jurisdiction

• MATTA signs MOU with European Tour and Travel Agency Associations at ITB Berlin

• MATTA collaborates with ACCKA to bring in more tourists