PUTRAJAYA, May 23- About 100,000 domestic and foreign tourists are targeted to attend the annual tourism promotion bash, Citrawarna 1Malaysia, at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur this Saturday.
Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz said the event themed, ‘Visit Malaysia Year 2014-Celebrating 1Malaysia Truly Asia’, would involve 6,700 participants including members of various associations, youth and students from public and private higher learning institutions.
He said 258 MegaFam participants comprising media practitioners and travel writers from 24 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand would witness the event and write about it, hence promoting Malaysia to their respective countries.
Nazri disclosed this at a news conference after the ministry’s post-cabinet meeting, here, today.
He said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Hajah Haminah would grace the occasion, the 15th edition, since it started in 1999.
Nazri said the event with the procession-cultural performance concept and divided into five segments – ecotourism, homestay, sports tourism, shopping, heritage and ‘Magic of the Night’ – would start at 5pm.
Among the highlights will be the procession involving eight decorated floats and 200 Porche cars, and the “Mega Endang” traditional dance involving all the parade participants, while the 1Malaysia food court will offer local culinary delights.
Nazri said the full rehearsal for Citrawarna 1Malaysia would be held tomorrow with the roads around Dataran Merdeka to be closed to traffic from 8.30pm to midnight. On the day of the actual event, the affected roads will be Jalan Raja, Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Dang Wangi, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Raja Laut, Jalan Lebuh Pasar Besar, Jalan Hishamudin, Jalan Damansara, Jalan Maharajalela and Jalan Kinabalu. These roads will be closed to traffic in stages from 6pm.
Nazri said Syarikat Prasarana would extend its RapidKL service to 1am and the LRT service to 12.30 on that day.
He said the colourful event would be broadcast live by TV2, MyTourismTV.com portal and TrulyAsiaTV.com, thus widening the opportunity for the country to meet the target of drawing 28 million foreign tourists during Visit Malaysia Year 2014.
– BERNAMA
