Visa on arrival for Indians visiting Malaysia from Singapore, Thailand

MUMBAI: Malaysia has introduced visa on arrival (VOA) facility for Indian tourists. There is a catch though: the VOA facility can be used only by those travelling to Malaysia from a third country; namely Singapore and Thailand; holding valid visas for the respective countries and having confirmed return tickets to India.

Visiting Indian tourists can avail of Visa on Arrival at all major airports of Malaysia namely Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Low cost Terminal LCCT (KLIA), Penang International Airport, Sultan Ismail International Airport, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Sabah and Kuching International Airport, Sarawak, at a fee of 100 USD or 330 MYR.

"Indian market is a significant contributor and has proven to be a strong and viable venture for inbound into Malaysia. With this new announcement of VOA, the Malaysian Government is expecting the number of tourist arrivals to increase significantly,'' said a release issued by Tourism Malaysia. "The facility introduced from January 1 onwards coincides with the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 (VMY 2014) and the Year of Festivals 2015`,'' it added.

Manoharan Periasamy, director, Tourism Malaysia said: "Destinations with ease of visa issuance are popular, and the choice of a holiday destination is most often decided on the factor of ease of visa approval.''