Johor building caravan parks

MB: Plan will attract more tourists

KOTA TINGGI: Tourists who want to go on a caravan holiday will be able to do so in Johor soon.

The state authorities, in a move to attract more tourists to the state, will provide 14 caravan parks for holiday makers.

Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin said a 0.4ha piece of land within Bio Desaru has been marked as the first caravan park. Bio Desaru is an integrated biotech agriculture and food production hub located near Sedili here.

He added that the location of the first caravan park was made possible through the cooperation between Johor Tourism and Bio Desaru Sdn Bhd (BDSB) to make the state an agro-tourism centre by 2020.

“Several areas along the eastern side of Johor have the potential to be developed as a caravan park and become the state’s newest tourism product to attract local and international tourists.

“With such attractive offers available, tourists can travel in Johor using caravans. The caravan holiday concept is similar to those being done in Australia and New Zealand,” he said after visiting Bio Desaru here yesterday.

He pointed out that the cooperation between the state tourism and BDSB came at the right time with plans to market Bio Desaru as a centre to promote organic food in Johor.

“Steps are being made to gazette tourism zones starting from Bio Desaru until Mersing and the East Coast Economic Region to complement the cooperation between the two agencies,” he added.

Mohamed Khaled said since its inception in 2008, Bio Desaru has attracted RM1.6bil in investments so far.

He said Malaysia’s agro-food industry was expected to see a growth of up to 4.7% by 2020 with an additional value of RM29.8bil.

“Once Bio Desaru is fully completed within the next four years, it will create 4,167 employment opportunities and generate more than RM1bil for the national gross income,” he said.