Experience snow in the city

i-City will welcome its first snowfall come March 19 with the launch of its much awaited snowfall technology from South Korea in Snowalk. Snowalk, the 50,000 sq feet Artic environment attraction in i-City will boost a below five degree Celcius temperature and 0.1m thick edible snow on the ground. With this, it aims to attract families during the weekends and school holidays. The announcement was made at the Royal Lake Club by I-Berhad in the presence of Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen recently.

A hundred tonnes of ice sculptures shaped by 30 skilled ice sculptors from Harbin, China will be available for guests to view. The snowfall technology by BarsKorea is being provided on an exclusive basis and has been designed to produce snow in a tropical climate. It has three components, the chiller to cool the purified water from room temperature to 15 degrees Celcius, a condenser unit to refrigerate the drum assembly and 16 patented drums to produce snowflakes “I used to say we can provide everything except snow but i-City has now made it possible for tourists to experience the sun, the sand, the mountains and snow,” said Dr Ng.

She added Malaysia has been chosen by the Global Traveller USA as the second best international destination and it is important to produce new products to ensure the lead in the tourism industry. She believed Snowalk would be a great tourist-puller especially those from the Middle East, Asean and South India. Dr Ng also said domestic tourism should not be forgotten and measures to promote local destinations to Malaysians should be considered.

“We hope to increase domestic tourism to 100 million trips in 2011 compared with 90.5 million trips in 2009. A domestic trip encompasses a 50km travel that takes more than four hours,” she added. I-City has agreed to consider a proposal by Dr Ng to provide 20% discount to MyKad holders as well as packages for senior citizens, students and families. “This can also be a great tool for national unity, i-City can invite various schools to have fun together in the snow,” she said.

In conjunction with the launch, i-City has formed a partnership with Nickelodeon SEA. The 12-month campaign includes on-air, online and on-the-ground activities. Nickelodeon’s characters, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants will make special appearances at i-City’s key events. During the coming school holidays, a host of fun activities, games and bazaar will be held from March 11 to 20.

-thestar online.