Perak Tourism Attractions Effort
Ready to push top attractions to tourists
Thursday May 26, 2011
PERAK will intensify its efforts — locally and abroad — to promote various tourist attractions in the state including the ones dubbed the ‘10 Icons of Perak’.
State Tourism Committee chairman Datuk Hamidah Osman said the icons were the Royal Belum world’s oldest rainforest, largest limestone cave in Peninsular Malaysia in Gua Tempurung, the Matang mangrove swamp forest, the Taiping Zoo and Night Safari, and the Perak Herbal Park.
Hamidah said the Orang Utan Island at Bukit Merah Laketown Resort, the Felda Residence Hotsprings in Sungai Klah, Sungkai; the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, Lumut and Pangkor Island; and Ipoh — well known for its beautiful limestone hills and diversity of food — were also in the list.
“An allocation of RM6mil has been put aside by the state government this year for this purpose,” she said.
Not to be missed: The million-year-old limestone cave in Gua Tempurung is popular with tourists.
She said RM2mil would be used for promotional activities which include putting up billboards and printing more brochures about the attractions.
“Advertisements will be placed in popular travel magazines. We are also currently negotiating with several television stations to run commercials,” she said.
On top of that, Hamidah said another RM4mil would be used to participate in domestic and foreign travel exhibitions.
“The state will organise travel exhibitions in Penang, Pahang and Johor to promote Perak’s tourist attractions,” she said, adding that the state will also participate in travel fairs to be held in London in November and Singapore in October.
She said tourist information centres in Taiping, Kuala Kangsar, Ipoh and Manjung would be upgraded to provide better services to tourists.
Hamidah said she believed that an increase in the number of tourists was expected in Perak in tandem with higher tourist arrivals to Malaysia as forecasted by the Tourism Ministry.
“The ministry is targeting 25 million tourists and RM60bil in revenue this year as compared with 24.6 million tourists and RM56.5bil in revenue for last year,” she added.
Hamidah also noted the state government’s efforts for the past two years had started to bear fruit.
“I have received positive feedback from the public that it is difficult to get hotel rooms in Ipoh especially during weekends.
“They are also complaining that there are not enough parking bays in the city,” she said.
Hamidah added with six hotels now under construction around Ipoh, the problem of insufficient rooms would be solved when they are completed in the next few years.
“The state has received several proposals to build hotels in the city, including a resort along the road heading to Cameron Highlands, about 5km from Simpang Pulai,” she said. -- Star Metro
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