Johor to boost international tourism

It hopes to double its number of visitors next year

JOHOR BARU: Johor hopes to get about twice the number of international visitors next year and hit at least five million such arrivals.

State tourism, environment, heritage and culture committee chairman K. Raven Kumar said the state received 2.8 million international visitors this year.

“Our aim was to get 1.5 million international visitors this year, but we managed to attract almost twice the number.

“Apart from Singapore, a significant number of the tourists came from India, the Philippines and Indonesia.

“We believe that we can get higher numbers next year, especially when China reopens its borders,” he said.

Among the popular holiday destinations were Desaru in Kota Tinggi and the Iskandar Puteri area, he told reporters after the launch of the Johor Speedfest here yesterday.

The event was officiated by Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar.

Raven said the Johor government was looking into organising 12 major tourism events to attract more international visitors next year.

“We are still facing problems in terms of getting more manpower for the tourism industry. We hope that this can be resolved soon,” he added.

On another matter, Raven, who is also MIC Youth chief, said Barisan Nasional must come together and study thoroughly the reason why it has lost a significant number of voters over the years.

“The Barisan supreme council will need to discuss and study the reason why we are losing the trust of the people. The graph has shown a downward trend in terms of the total number of voters in each election since 2013. So, we need to examine in detail why this is happening,” he said.

Raven added that the season of politicking was over and that the focus should now be on strengthening the unity government at the federal level.

“The Yang di-pertuan Agong urged the formation of a unity government and for the benefit of the people, we should focus on strengthening this unity government,” he said, adding that the formation of the Federal Government should not have much impact on the state government, which is under Barisan’s administration.

“I am very hopeful that we will have good cooperation with the Federal Government.

“Johor is among the states that must be given priority, since we have international borders with Singapore and Indonesia,” he said.