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Mercedes Hutton
Mercedes Hutton

Destinations known | Indian tourists prefer Singapore: Malaysia is trying to work out why and how to attract more

  • India is one of the world’s fastest-growing outbound tourism markets and destinations are competing to attract travellers from the subcontinent
  • Singapore currently tops the list for Indian visitors but its northern neighbour is doing all it can to knock it from the top spot

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An Indian family pose at Universal Studios Singapore. Photo: Shutterstock
Mercedes Hutton
In late July, a family on the Indonesian resort island of Bali achieved on behalf of Indian tourists something once believed impossible; the eclipsing of their infamous Chinese counterparts in notoriety, according to five years’ worth of Google Trends data. Online interest in Indian tourists was sparked after the family were reportedly caught stealing from their accommodation; a video of the group being berated by the hotel staff quickly went viral and they were widely condemned for bringing shame upon their nation.
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However, the incident did little to dent the appeal of Indian travellers as a growing source market for Asian holiday hotspots, particularly as some are experiencing a downturn in arrivals from the Middle Kingdom. A study published last year by Orbis Research found that India has become one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets in the world. In 2017, international tourism departures from India hit 23 million, which is still a long way from the 130 million outbound trips made by Chinese travellers that year, but shows a significant rise from 10 years earlier, when only 9.8 million Indians went on overseas adventures, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, which forecasts that the figure will reach 50 million by 2022.

Orbis expects the value of India’s outbound tourism market to surpass US$42 billion within five years, and destinations are laying the groundwork to ensure that they get their piece of the pie.

Singapore currently occupies the international top spot for Indian travellers, with more than 1.4 million arriving in 2018, according to a report in The Hindu Business Line newspaper, while India is the city state’s third largest source market behind China and Indonesia, in that order, as per figures from the Singapore Tourism Board. But Malaysia, currently the sixth most popular place for tourists from India – The Hindu Business Line reported it welcomed 600,000 from the subcontinent last year – is doing all it can to knock its neighbour from primo position.

An Indian family outside the Batu Caves, a Hindu temple and shrine, in Malaysia. Photo: Shutterstock
An Indian family outside the Batu Caves, a Hindu temple and shrine, in Malaysia. Photo: Shutterstock
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On November 4, the Singapore edition of online news site the International Business Times reported that Malaysia had launched a “charm offensive” to attract more Indians. Malaysian tourism officials visited Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and Cochin to showcase the wealth of experiences available to tourists and to promote the country as a “value-for-money eco-tourism destination” with a rich arts culture. “Malaysia, which has a more diverse range of attractions compared with Singapore, is trying to figure out why it’s attracting fewer travellers than Singapore,” noted IBTimes.

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