Malacca among top 10 best destinations in Asia: Idris

MALACCA: Malacca has been placed among the top 10 best tourism destinations in Asia 2017 by Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide book publisher in the world, said Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron.
With this, he said, credit must be given to Tourism Malacca and other related agencies for their efforts in promoting the state internationally.
"We are proud that we have been put on the same level as other world destinations such as Guangzhou city in China, Takayama (Japan), Raja Ampat (Indonesia) and others," he said in a press conference held after chairing the state executive committee meeting at Seri Negri, Ayer Keroh, here today.
He said the recognition has placed Malacca on par with other tourism cities.
"The Malaysian government through the Ministry of Tourism and Culture has also recognised Malacca as the second tourism destination in the country," he said.
He added that besides Lonely Planet, Malacca has also been recognised as an international tourism destination by others like The New York Times, tourism blogs and tripadvisor.com.
Idris said in the early days of promoting Malacca, the state government had been the subject of wild accusations by certain parties, but in the end, their efforts had managed to draw world attention.
He also lambasted claims on the social media that the level of cleanliness had deteriorated, saying that Malacca was still the cleanest and most beautiful state in the country.
"The claims and accusations are untrue...to date, I have not seen any report from any agency on this," he said.
On a separate development, Idris said the Malacca state government conveyed its condolences to Negri Sembilan on the death of Lenggeng state assemblyman Datuk Ishak Ismail who died from a heart attack yesterday. — Bernama