As travellers reconsider trips to Middle East favourites such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi amid the war, Malaysia is pushing proximity, visa-free access and stronger trade outreach to capture redirected travel demand.
ASEAN remains Malaysia’s anchor, contributing an estimated 75% to 80% of total international arrivals. To that end, Tourism Malaysia has increased roadshows across Southeast Asia to step up destination visibility and reinforce its proximity to regional travellers.
Concurrently, a South Asian destination opportunity has risen for Malaysia as well.
India is emerging as a strong inbound market, where tourists currently enjoy visa-free travel into Malaysia until 31 December 2026, on top of relatively shorter travel times.
“We are seeing increased demand from the Indian market,” confirmed Rocky Kho of Skyzone Tours of enquiries in recent months.
“Previously, many would travel to destinations like Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Now, amid the global crisis, they are looking at Malaysia instead.”
T. Ediwanto T. Eddie, deputy director of Tourism Malaysia Mumbai noted similar market demand. He added that they will be “rolling out more targeted campaigns and working closely with travel agents and media partners to drive more Indian visitors to Malaysia”.
Tourism Malaysia hosted a roadshow and networking session in New Delhi on 24 February, bringing together Malaysian sellers and Indian travel trade partners.
Malaysia welcomed 1.5 million Indian visitors in 2025 and is targeting over two million under VM2026.
The shift also comes as the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia (MOTAC) fine-tunes its marketing strategy to meet VM2026 targets, with a stronger push on regional visibility and source markets that can convert quickly.
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