LANGKAWI, June 3- The Kedah government’s main focus will be on attracting more than three million tourists a year to Langkawi, with a projected annual tourism-related gross income of RM3.8 billion by 2015.
Menteri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Tun Mahathir said that last year, revenue receipts from the approximately three million recorded tourist arrivals in Langkawi amounted to about RM2.6 billion.
“We have to push harder to realise our goal. It’s not easy to achieve the target for Langkawi because of the stiff competition within the region from Bali and Phuket.
“In order to be two or three steps ahead of them, we must act out of the box,” he said here today after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Langkawi Development Authority (Lada) and Pekan Artisan Sdn Bhd which will see two exclusive and innovative development projects in Langkawi.
The memorandum was signed by Lada chief executive officer Tan Sri Khalid Ramli and Pekan Artisan chief operating officer, Saifful Azhar Sabaruddin. Pekan Artisan is a tourism resort and high-impact attraction developer.
“Now we have to focus on quality tourists, not backpackers who don’t really spend much. This happens in some other places too; they don’t contribute too much,” he said.
In another development, Mukhriz said the state government had officially issued orders to temporarily stop two projects involving land clearing activities implemented by the previous PAS-led state administration, in Pedu and Gunung Inas, Baling.
He said the orders were issued against an agro-tourism project near the Pedu dam as well as the Ladang Rakyat rubber plantation initiative in Gunung Inas.
Last month, Mukhriz announced that the Kedah government would suspend all logging activities in the state, pending a study on their impact on the environment and the people’s livelihood.
He said this followed complaints from villagers that logging activities in their areas had affected the supply and quality of water.
– BERNAMA
