Royal touch for Langkawi SkyCab 15th anniversary celebration

LANGKAWI: The Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Sallehuddin Ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, today officiated the 15th Anniversary Celebration of Langkawi SkyCab, a cable car system which is one of the island's top tourism attractions.
His Royal Highness was accompanied by Sultanah of Kedah Sultanah Maliha Tengku Ariff, Raja Muda Kedah, Tengku Sarafudin Badlishah and Raja Puan Muda Kedah, Che Puan Muda Zaheeda Mohamad Ariff at the event.
The Langkawi Skycab was officially opened on Nov 1, 2002 after the construction of the project which began in April 2001 was completed at a cost of RM46 million.
This cable car system, built based on a design by Austrian company Doppelmayr, spanned over two kilometres from its Oriental Village base station to the top of the island's second highest mountain, Mount Machinchang, which is over 700 metres above sea level.
The ride on the cable car offers visitors a panoramic view of the island as well as the southern part of neighbouring Thailand.
Apart from being billed as the steepest cable car in the world, the Langkawi SkyCab which is operated by Panorama Langkawi Sdn Bhd had also been listed in the Malaysia Book of Records for The Longest Free Span Mono-Cable.
In July this year, an international travel website Smartertravel.com rated it as among the 10 best cable car systems in the world.
In addition, it also won the Malaysia Power Brand 2016/2017 award, Malaysia Tourism Quality Assurance, Langkawi Tourism Award 2014/2015 and TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence.
Panorama Langkawi's chairman, Datuk Ir Nawawi Ahmad who spoke at the celebration ceremony said Langkawi SkyCab had managed to attract about 11.5 million tourists ever since it began operation.
"From a mere 353,000 visitors registered in 2002, the number had grown over the years and so far this year, 1.28 million had been recorded," he added. — Bernama