At an awareness-raising event to promote cross-border tourism between Malaysia and Thailand. Photo Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia and Thailand 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 emphasised that this collaboration supports the upcoming Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign, which seeks to attract 35.6 million tourist arrivals.

Preliminary statistics showed that from January 1 to September 30, Thailand welcomed more than 3.7 million Malaysian tourists, 49.33 per cent 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 per cent compared to the same period last year. VNA/VNS