Visa-free entry is a crucial factor for Indians travelling abroad, travel companies say

After Sri Lanka and Thailand, Malaysia has granted visa-free entry to Indians for stays of up to 30 days starting December 1. Travel companies say that visa-free entry is a crucial factor for Indians travelling abroad.

“Indians are travelling like never before and our consumer data indicates high appetite for multiple mini-cations, especially for closer-to-home/easy visa destinations,” said Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head, Holidays, MICE, Visa - Thomas Cook (India) Limited. He added that the recent announcement by Thailand of visa-free entry for Indians had spurred strong interest, leading to a 30% uptick in demand compared to last year. “With visas forming a critical deciding factor for Indian travellers, the recent update on visa-free entry to Malaysia from December 1 is a smart move, clearly intended to catalyse visits from the powerful and high-growth India market,” Kale said.

According to the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, the country recorded 9.1 million tourist arrivals until June, with around 280,000 from India. “Indians across segments, including multigenerational families, couples/honeymooners, DINKs, millennials/Young India and solo travellers, are utilising their year-end leave, also extended weekends and public holidays to plan multiple mini-cations especially to no-visa and easy visa short haul destinations,” Kale adds.

India emerged as the largest market for outbound travellers in Asia in 2022. According to Ministry of Tourism data, the top five destinations for Indians are the UAE, Saudi Arabia, USA, Singapore and Thailand. According to Daniel D’Souza, President & Country Head–Holidays, SOTC Travel, Indians are leveraging on every opportunity to travel. “We are witnessing a growth of over 20% YoY in our bookings for October-December. Customers are displaying high interest for easy visa/visa-on-arrival destinations, this is in addition to domestic and long-haul destinations,” D’Souza said.

He adds that Thailand, Sri Lanka, and now Malaysia are seeing strong interest from customers across segments after the recent announcements. “Other closer to home favourite locales include Indonesia, Vietnam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi. Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andamans, Goa, Rajasthan and Kerala remain domestic favourites. For the Christmas/New Year period, we are witnessing high interest for Europe; also New Year celebrations and fireworks in Australia’s Sydney,” he said.

He added that with Cordelia cruises and the introduction of Costa’s domestic sailings, cruise holidays are witnessing demand not only from metros and mini-metros, but also Tier 2 and 3 cities.