SELANGOR TARGETS 3.5 MLN TOURISTS THIS YEAR

SHAH ALAM, Jan 8 (Bernama) -- The Selangor government is targeting more than 3.5 million tourists from home and abroad this year, said State Tourism, Environment, Green Technology and Orang Asli Affairs chairman Hee Loy Sian.

The target is a five per cent increase compared to last year’s 3.3 million tourists, he said. 

Hee said among the locations that are expected to be tourist attractions is Splashmania Water Theme Park in Gamuda Cove in Banting; water taxis in Klang and cruise ship tours through Port Klang Cruise Terminal, near here.

“In addition, ecotourism segments such as the Gombak Hulu Langat Geopark Project (GHL) which consists of 20 geosites in Gombak and Hulu Langat including Batu Caves, Permatang Kuarza, Sungai Tekala and Sungai Lalang Air Panas Complex are the popular choice of tourists.

“Agritourism such as Selangor Fruit Valley in Bestari Jaya and some areas in Sungai Panjang, Sabak Bernam and Sekinchan also received attention,” he said in a statement.

He said the package based on the local community (Community-Based Tourism) will also be widely marketed because it is the latest trend for tourists.

At the 2023 Selangor Budget presentation session, Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari announced an allocation of RM6 million this year to develop and boost the tourism industry in the state.

Tourism Selangor will also empower two tourism promotion campaigns, namely ‘Pusing Selangor Dulu!’ for the domestic and ‘Splendid Selangor, Take Me Anywhere’ for the international market.

In addition, Hee said the state’s official tourism application ‘Go Selangor!’ has been downloaded by nearly 2,000 users and accessed 6,820 times.

“The application received quite a good response from users, but there are some suggestions to increase packaged tours.

“A total of 313 operators were involved in 2022 (with ‘Go Selangor!’) consisting of the hotel (hospitality), food and beverage, lifestyle, ticket sales, attractive locations and tourism activities sectors,” he said.

He said a total of 1,000 operators will be added in the first quarter of 2023 to boost the use of the application.

The ‘Go Selangor!’ application was launched in April last year to make it easier for tourists to get full access to tourism products in the state, in addition to positioning operators or merchants (traders).

Through this application, which can be downloaded via Google Play Store and iOS, users can buy tickets (to events), book hotels, chalets, homestays, transport and others.

-- BERNAMA