G
Gan Ning
Guest
Wednesday November 10, 2010
Johor to introduce new tourism product for sightseers
JOHOR BARU: Tourists will now be able to pedal and go sightseeing in the town centre on a quadricycle some time next month. State Tourism and Domestic Trade Committee chairman Hoo Seong Chang said 20 such vehicles would be made available initially. “A trishaw has three wheels, but a quadricycle has four and tourists can pedal as well.
Pedalling tours: The quadricycle, which is similar to a trishaw, will be made available to tourists in Johor Baru beginning next month.
“We are finalising the routes, mostly around tourist spots,” he said, adding that the state government was hoping that the service, operated by a private company, would help boost tourism. For a start, the quadricycle service would only be available during weekends.
Hoo said the state government would also kick-start an aggressive campaign to increase tourist arrivals to four million people by next year. “This year, tourist arrivals increased about 3% to 3.63 million from 3.52 million people in 2009,” he told reporters during the launch of a seminar on safety awareness in hotels, resorts and travel lodges here yesterday.
“Our targets include getting more chartered fights from Chinese cities and Brunei,” he said, adding that they were also looking into developing more tourism products, including having a heritage trail and also setting up a tourism information centre.
“The setting up of a premium outlet in Kulai and Legoland over the next one to two years is also expected to boost tourist arrivals,” he said. He added that at present, Johor had 177 registered hotels, resorts and travel lodges offering 12,327 rooms.
