IPOH, July 5 — The Visit Perak Year 2017 campaign was a success as it brought a 16 per cent increase in tourist arrivals last year, a state official said today.
State tourism and culture executive committee chairman Tan Kar Hing said 20.11 million tourists visited the state in 2017 — a 16.54 per cent increase from the previous year.
Tan said the number of day-trip and domestic tourists had also risen in Perak, according to a study conducted by the Department of Statistics.
“We saw 12.47 million day-trip tourists and 7.6 million domestic tourists visit Perak in 2017, which represented increases of 23.2 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively,” Tan told a press conference.
“One of the main reasons for this was the Visit Perak Year 2017 campaign, which helped promote our unique attractions.
“The variety of 120 events on our tourism calendar and the growth of products like the MAPS theme park played a significant role as well.”
Tan said Perak recorded the second highest number of domestic tourists nationwide, behind Pahang which had 7.7 million visitors.
From 2012 to 2015, Perak sat atop the rankings, but fell to second last year behind Johor.
Tan said the state wanted to return to the top of the rankings, and was planning new approaches to attract tourists to Perak.
He said the state wanted to increase night activities in Ipoh as most tourists usually visited the city during daylight hours.
“One of the reasons why people don’t stay overnight here is because there aren’t many activities at night.
“This must change. One of the ideas we have is to set up a permanent stage somewhere in the city where there can be unique performances and activities at night. This will bring in more visitors”
Tan said the state would also be hosting several events for the coming Merdeka eve and Malaysia Day celebrations, which would coincide with the run-up to the 2018 Malaysia Games (Sukma) in mid-September.
He said the state would also be organising smaller side events related to Sukma, which would be announced later.
