Visit Perak Year 2017 not affected by Tourism Malaysia office closure

IPOH: The Visit Perak Year 2017 will not be affected by the immediate closure of all Tourism Malaysia offices.
Perak Tourism, Arts, Culture, Communication and Multimedia committee chairman Datuk Nolee Ashilin Mohammed Radzi said the Perak state mission will implement all the tourism plans accordingly.
"We have implemented a lot of initiatives with the cooperation of Tourism Malaysia in Perak," she told theSun today.
She said their mission to attract tourists will not to be disrupted as the state will continue its work with the regional office.
"The only snag and a challenge is the distance for physical communication which will now be further away," she added.
Nolee said the Tourism offices overseas were still maintained and thus will not effect the state's promotion and creating networks with foreign markets.
She was commenting on the statement by Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz on Tuesday that all Tourism Malaysia offices nationwide will be closed to avoid duplication of duties withe state tourism agencies.
Although the ministry had closed the offices, it will create five informative offices - one in Penang for the northern region, Terengganu (eastern region) Johor (southern region), one in Sabah at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport and Sarawak at the Kuching International Airport.
Mohamed Nazri said every state has an executive councillor for tourism and a state economic unit besides the State operating under the Perak Tourism Management Bhd.
Nolee said several new tourist products have been developed and upgraded by both the government and the private sector to attract a bigger number of people to the state in conjunction with VPY 2017.
Nolee Ashilin added the tourism industry had also changed after Ipoh was voted as 6th Best City in Asia to be visited for 2016 and Perak voted top ninth region in the world to be visited in 2017 in Lonely Planets’ Best Trips.
Familiarisation trips had been organised and some eight million visitors can be expected from China, Mumbai, New Delhi, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and European markets.