Malaysia ready to offer visa-free travel to increase tourist arrivals from SL

• But government yet to make official request, says High Commissioner Adam
• Malaysia plans to double tourist arrivals from SL in its latest tourism campaign
• SL among top 20 source markets for Malaysia in 2024; recorded second highest arrivals from South Asia, after India

By Nishel Fernando

While expressing keenness to extend possible visa-free travel for Sri Lankan tourists visiting Malaysia, High Commissioner of Malaysia to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Badli Hisham Adam emphasised that the Sri Lankan government needs to make an official request to the Malaysian government to move ahead with such a facility.

With visa-free initiatives gaining momentum globally to attract tourists, Malaysia launched visa-free travel with countries, including China and India, this year.

“We welcome everybody, including from Sri Lanka. Your (Sri Lankan) government needs to request from our (Malaysian) side because it’s based on government-to-government initiatives. The current government (in Sri Lanka) has not yet requested such a thing from its Malaysian counterparts officially,” said Adam.

“They need to come and discuss with us because this will be a higher-level arrangement. Although we welcome everybody, we want to open Malaysia for everybody but there are certain things. Even Sri Lanka (government) told us to control the movement of your (Sri Lankan) people to go out from your country,” Adam told journalists in Colombo yesterday.

He was answering media queries at a press conference organised to announce the Visit Malaysia 2026 tourism campaign in Sri Lanka. 

“We want to extend the free visa scheme to Sri Lanka, actually,” he stressed.

The campaign aims to nearly double the tourist arrivals from Sri Lanka to 100,000 travellers. In 2024, 58,015 Sri Lankans visited Malaysia, a 122 percent increase compared to the pre-pandemic numbers in 2019, when only 26,058 Sri Lankans travelled to Malaysia.

There are 30 flights per week from Colombo, with a total seat capacity of 4,990, enhancing connectivity between the two countries.

Sri Lanka was also among the top 20 source markets for Malaysia in 2024 and recorded the second-highest arrivals from South Asia, after India.

Under the Visit Malaysia 2026 tourism campaign, Sri Lankan travellers will be offered exclusive packages and promotions, specifically tailored for them.

“We are aiming high with Visit Malaysia Tourism Campaign 2026 and the year 2026 is set to be a monumental milestone. This campaign will celebrate Malaysia’s vibrant culture, diverse landscape and rich heritage, emphasising sustainable tourism,” Tourism Malaysia Director Chennai Hishamuddin Bin Mustafa said.

Under the campaign, the Malaysian tourism authorities are planning to promote tourist destinations beyond Kuala Lumpur, including Sabah, Sarawak and Langkawi.

Malaysia’s diverse tourism offerings also include community-based tourism, wedding tourism, medical tourism, MICE tourism and film tourism. It is also offering incentives for certain segments such as film tourism.

The Malaysian officials stressed that Malaysia is an affordable destination, including for medical tourism.

Given the historical bond between the two nations, Adam emphasised that Sri Lanka holds a special place in Malaysia.

“I prefer to use ‘companions’ because you are very near to our heart. Sri Lankans, as I said, are very near to our hearts. In fact, your food, you know ‘dodol’, is also coming from Malaysia. You have it here, ‘dodol’ but in Malaysia, we have ‘dodol’ with durian. So, you must come to Malaysia to experience the taste of ‘dodol’ plus durian,” he said.

He added that even some Sri Lankan restaurants are expanding to Malaysia, including ISSO and Ministry of Crab, which recently opened branches in Kuala Lumpur.

However, he advised that Sri Lanka must do more to promote the country, as many still associate it with war-time memories.

“You have to remember, you have to see the history of Sri Lanka, where everybody, actually, even to come here, still thinks about Sri Lanka during the war time,” he said.

Malaysia welcomed the highest number of foreign tourists among the ASEAN countries last year, amounting to around 38 million foreign tourists.