Kedah Provides Various Incentives To Woo Tourists To Langkawi

LANGKAWI, July 15 (Bernama) -- Various incentives are provided by the Kedah government to woo tourists to Langkawi and make the legendary island a major destination for tourists in the state. State Tourism, Social Development and Human Resource Committee chairman S. Manikumar said the incentives were introduced to make tourists stay longer on the island, hence helped to generate more income for locals. "This is to make Langkawi a major destination for tourists in Kedah and to boost development of Kedah's tourism sector," he said at the presentation of awards to the Underwater World Langkawi (UWL) agents here last night.

Manikumar said the state government would cooperate and coordinate programmes with Tourism Malaysia to promote Langkawi, like through the "Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia". Meanwhile, Eden Inc Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohamad said UWL was the biggest aquarium in the country. It has 500 species, like the Anaconda, Rockhopper Penguin and the African penguin, and 4,000 marine life which are displayed in more than 100 huge tanks. Since August 1995, UWL had attracted seven million visitors, he added. He said UWL had been awarded the "Outstanding Tourism Product" for two consecutive years.