KATHMANDU: Nepal and Malaysia are looking at boosting their tourism industries and cultural programs in both countries. Speaking at the Malaysia Food and Cultural Program event on Saturday, Tourism Malaysia Director Mirza Mohamed Taiyab urged both countries to improve on their relations to make these ideas a reality. “Malaysia and Nepal both share vast potential in tourism and we have to explore it," he said, addressing the event in the presence of Vice President Pramananda Jha. He added that he believed that increasing the frequency of flights via Malaysia Airlines between Kuala Lumpur and Kathmandu would have a direct role in allowing travelers to have been access to each country According to international tourism statistics, Malaysia is the 9th most-visited country in the world, with 24.7 million tourists visiting the country in 2011, and it earned $19 billion from travelers to the Southeast Asian country. For Nepal, those are staggering numbers, especially for an industry that is expected to garner around one million visitors this year. But, local Nepali newspapers believe the South Asian country is an emerging market for Malaysia, with a total of 81,800 tourist arrivals recorded from January to October 2011. This year, from January to June, a total of 51,400 tourists from Nepal visited Malaysia. “Similarly, about 20,000 Malaysians have been visiting Nepal annually since the last couple of years,” The Himalayan Times reported. Direct flights between Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur began on Saturday.