Visit Perak Year 2012 preparations gathering momentum

International journalists and travel agents will be arriving in Ipoh alongside tourists during Visit Perak Year 2012.

Datuk Bandar Datuk Roshidi Hashim said invitations would be sent out to members of the Tourism Promotion Organisation for Asia Pacific Cities. The organisation, with a membership of over 100 cities in Australia, China, Japan and Russia, plays a key role in helping member cities lead the tourism industry. “We hope these journalists and travel agents will promote our city after returning from the familiarisation tour,” Roshidi said in his speech during the council’s full board meeting last week.

The tour, he said, would be organised by the Ipoh City Council with help from the organisation and is expected to take place in the first quarter of the year. To accommodate the influx of tourists during VPY 2012, Roshidi said the council had issued 29 planning permissions for the development of hotels. It had also approved the building plans of 23 new hotels, he added. “This shows that Ipoh has great potential in the tourism industry,” he said.

Roshidi said the council would also undertake several projects to ensure the safety of tourists as they moved around in the city, in line with the Safe City concept. “We are hoping to get a RM2.2mil allocation to create motorcycle bays with locks and install pedestrian barriers along walkways, safety mirrors and warning signboards at 18 hotspots identified by the police,” he said. Roshidi said street crime in the city, especially snatch thefts, had been reduced by 45% from 116 cases in 2010, to 59 cases last year.

-thestar online.

photo: pelancongan kini