While a great deal has been reported on Tourism Malaysia's efforts to woo Indian tourists to Malaysia, it is now India's turn to aggressively court Malaysian tourists to visit India.

India's efforts to attract Malaysian tourists are part of an aggressive drive by the Indian Government to check the overall adverse effects of the global economic meltdown and the shocking Mumbai carnage of Nov 26 on the tourism traffic to India.

India's interest in courting Malaysian tourists is reflected in a number of moves made by the IndiaTourism office in Singapore -- India's official tourism promotion agency does not have an office in Malaysia which is looked after by the Singapore office -- whose assistant director Neela Lad regularly visits Malaysia and works closely with tour and travel operators, as well as airlines and others players involved in tourism promotion.

"In an effort to attract more traffic from Malaysia, we are trying to liberalise our visa policy and reduce visa fees for Malaysian nationals. I have already made representations to the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur to reduce the visa fee, down from the current fee of RM180," she said in an interview with Bernama.

The visa liberalisation, she said, would make India an attractive destination for Malaysians.