CHENNAI India, 31 August 2023: Tourism Malaysia’s Chennai office is hosting the Malaysia Food and Cultural Festival at the Crowne Plaza, Chennai, this week.
Showcasing cultural performances by Malaysian artists and culinary demonstrations by celebrated chefs, the event opened on 26 August and continues until 4 September.
Celebrity chefs from Malaysia flew to Chennai on Batik Air’s inaugural flight from Kuala Lumpur. The airline has scheduled daily operations on the route since 24 August 2023.
This cultural and culinary event was opened by the Consul General of Malaysia, Saravana Kumar and supported by representatives from Crowne Plaza, Batik Air, Sama-Sama Hotel, KL International Airport, Borneo Brothers Tours & Travel and VG Maju Tour & Travels.
Tourism Malaysia director-general Dato Dr Ammar Abd Ghapar said: “With the huge demand for more flights from South India to Malaysia, we are happy to announce that Batik Air has launched daily flights from Chennai into Kuala Lumpur.”
This year, Malaysia targets 16.1 million international tourist arrivals with MYR49.3 billion in tourism receipts. India remains among the top countries contributing to tourist arrivals to Malaysia. In 2022, Malaysia welcomed 324,548 Indian tourists, while from January to May 2023, Malaysia received as many as 230,865 Indian tourists compared to 37,198 in the same period last year.
Currently, 158 flights with 30,032 seats are scheduled weekly between India and Malaysia through Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air, AirAsia and IndiGo. Indian tourists can now apply for Malaysia’s eVISA Multiple Entry Visa (MEV) through malaysiavisa.imi.gov.my/evisa.
