NEW DELHI: Malaysia secured three awards at the Travel + Leisure India & South Asia Magazine’s India’s Best Awards 2013 Monday.
Malaysia was named the best green destination for the second consecutive year while Langkawi was crowned runner-up as a honeymoon destination and the KL International Airport was declared a joint runner-up with Heathrow Airport in the best airport category.
“It is a regional recognition for Malaysia and we will continue to promote places like Taman Negara as well as Sabah and Sarawak,” Tourism Malaysia director (Mumbai) P.Manoharam said.
Malaysia expects tourist arrivals from India to increase from 650,989 last year to between 780,000 and 800,000 this year.
India is Malaysia’s sixth largest source of visitors.
Manoharam said Langkawi was popular among Indian and South Asian travellers not only for honeymoon but also as a family destination.
“Langkawi is runner-up as a honeymoon destination after Maldives, which is a high achievement,” he told Bernama after receiving the awards here.
The readers’ poll was conducted through the magazine and online in 2013 over a period of five months.
Magazine editor-in-chief Payal Kohli said the third edition of the India’s Best Awards boasted the biggest number of winners as the competition was very close in many categories, resulting in a number of joint winners and runners-up.
Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia has about 60,000 readers in 12 countries in Southeast Asia, including Hong Kong and Macau. — BERNAMA