Johor to draw more local tourists

Liow (middle) presenting a goodie bag to Firefly Airlines passengers on its inaugural flight from Kota Baru to Johor Baru at Senai International Airport. Looking on is Md Derick (left).

KULAI: Johor is eyeing more domestic tourists to visit the state in conjunction with Visit Johor Year 2020 (VJY2020) programme.

State tourism, women development, family and community committee chairman Liow Cai Tung said VJY2020 was not only focusing on attracting foreign tourists but domestic visitors as well.

“Over the last three years, there is a healthy growth in domestic tourists visiting Johor.

“In 2016, the state recorded 2.6 million domestic visitors while in 2017, the number jumped to 2.63 million. Last year, we received about 2.92 million and we are hoping the figure continues to rise for 2019 and beyond, ” she said after welcoming Firefly Airlines passengers from its inaugural Kota Baru-Johor Baru flight at Senai International Airport here.

She commended Firefly for introducing the new route, with Senai International Airport now having five airlines operating 12 domestic and seven international routes.

“I hope more airlines will support the state tourism sector by having more routes to Johor, ” she said.

Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd (SATSSB) chief executive officer Md Derick Basir said many airline companies had shown interest to have international flights from the airport.

“We are in discussions with several airline companies to introduce flights from Senai International Airport to international destinations such as Shenzhen in China, Medan in Indonesia and a city in Japan.

Meanwhile, Firefly chief executive officer Phillip See said the airline would fly between Kota Baru and Johor Baru three times a week.

“We are very excited with our new route, which connects both Johor Baru and Kota Baru.

“Both cities are strategic as Kota Baru is located as an entry point to southern Thailand while Johor Baru is fast growing to become a major area for business and leisure as well as an entry point to Singapore, ” he said.

See added that Firefly would be able to help the state government in getting more domestic tourists to come here with the their new route service.

-thestar online.