Two Asia's 'most loved' destinations enhance cross-border tourism

By VNA October 28, 2024 | 06:54 pm PT

A view of the Petronas Towers, a major landmark of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 1, 2021. Photo by Reuters

Malaysia and Thailand, Asia's "most loved" destinations, have joined hands to promote cross-border tourism through the launch of a "self-drive" initiative aimed at raising awareness of tourism routes and activities in both countries.

Yasmeen Yasim, Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture of Malaysia, said this initiative aims to enrich the tourism experience while fostering deeper cultural exchange between the two nations.

"With a timely collaboration such as this, we are optimistic about achieving our target of 2.3 million tourist arrivals from Thailand in 2025. It reflects our shared commitment to strengthening regional ties through tourism," she said as cited by Tourism Malaysia.

She further emphasized that this collaboration supports the upcoming Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign, which seeks to attract 35.6 million tourist arrivals.

Preliminary statistics showed that from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, Thailand welcomed more than 3.7 million Malaysian tourists, 49.33% of whom entered through the Sadao Immigration Checkpoint in Songkhla province.

Meanwhile, as of August 2024, Malaysia received 1.1 million tourists from Thailand, an increase of 19.7% compared to the same period last year.

In June, Malaysia and Thailand were voted as the most loved destinations in Asia, according to a survey by American financial website Insider Monkey based on various metrics including respect, friendliness, diversity, democracy and the number of foreign tourists.