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From 1st June 2022, Indians will be able to get their Malaysia visa on arrival. This was declared by Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad. The VoA scheme will be valid for six months and can be extended for another six months. The decision comes after a series of meetings between India and Malaysia's foreign ministers, Sushma Swaraj, and Saifuddin Abdullah, respectively, in New Delhi last week.
The two countries signed an agreement for mutual recognition of visas for nationals of each other's countries in April this year. The move is expected to help boost tourism from India to Malaysia by as much as 30 per cent over the next five years.
According to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, visa-free access for Indian citizens will be made available at all entry points in Malaysia and not only at airports as it is currently available for nationals from other countries like China, Thailand, and Indonesia. The visa-on-arrival facility is already available for tourists from China, Japan, and South Korea.
The move is expected to boost the number of tourists visiting Southeast Asian countries. Malaysia's tourism industry has been hit by falling arrivals following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in March 2014 and the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014. The MH370 incident resulted in the death of 239 passengers while the MH17 crash saw all 298 people on board killed.
The number of Indian tourists visiting Malaysia in 2019 was more than 400,000 as per official statistics released by both countries. This figure was higher than the number of Chinese tourists who visited Malaysia during the same period. The number of Indians visiting Malaysia increased by more than 30% compared to 2018.
The ministry also said that this would increase the number of tourists coming to Malaysia by 80% over the next few years, with tourist arrivals expected to reach 6 million by 2025.
