The Perak state government is looking to increase international visitors, with the declaration of 2012 as Visit Perak year. To facilitate this, five clusters have been identified to grow arrivals. “The five clusters are Belum and Lenggong, Taiping, Kuala Kangsar, Ipoh and Pangkor,” said Hamidah Osman, chairman of the state committee responsible for tourism. “The clusters will be developed into three-day, two-night packages.”
Perak's capital Ipoh, Taiping and Kuala Kangsar are urban centres featuring history and heritage. Pangkor is a popular beach resort, Belum has one of the oldest rainforests in the world, while Lenggong is an archaeologically-rich area. Perak currently attracts three million tourists a year, mostly domestic.
Chief minister, Dr Zambry Abd. Kadir, said: “We are still working on the target for 2012. However, of the increase in the number of tourists we aim for, we want at least 40 per cent of them to be international visitors.” In addition to the five clusters, two trails are also being packaged – one on history and heritage, and another on food.
“The food trail is specially targeted at Singaporeans, (the state's main source of international tourists),” Zambry said. Singapore-based Citiskies Travel Mart customer service manager, Liyana Ahmad Kamal, said: “Having just visited Belum and Lenggong, I know that such a package is sellable to adventurous travellers. I am not so sure about heritage though. It will be hard for Ipoh to compete with Malacca, which is well established."
Ipoh-based Syuen Tours Travel & Leisure general manager, May Wong, thinks the food trail will do well. “I already have customers from Singapore who regularly visit Ipoh just to try out the food,” Wong said.
-TTG Asia.
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