Perak To Give Priority To Domestic Tourism
Wooing domestic tourists to Perak will be top priority for the revamped Perak Tourist Association (PTA).
Its newly elected president Haji Mohd Odzman bin Abdul Kadir stressed that he shares the sentiments of Tourism Malaysia when it launched the slogan ‘To Know Malaysia Is To Love Malaysia’.
“There is huge potential in domestic tourism, and Perak should capitalize on it”, said Mohd. Odzman, who took over from Datuk Mohd. Zainal Abidin bin Hj. Abdul Kadir after being the association’s secretary since 1984.
Haji Mohd.Odzman bin Abdul Kadir
“We can save a lot money on promotion, compared to budgets for international tourism. We will encourage Malaysians to visit our tourist destinations in the state through various activities and programs.”
He said PTA will work with Tourism Ministry and Education Ministry on how to promote tourism aggressively among students, and as well as to inform youth organisations of the various business potentials and job opportunities in the tourism sectors.
It will also seek the opinions of major tourism players such as the YTL, EMKAY and Sunway groups, who have invested millions of Ringgit to develop the Perak tourism potentials.
“However, PTA would not completely ignore the international market, with its prime target being Singaporeans. Our eco tourism should be our selling point”, he added.
Haji Mohd Odzman has been involved in tourism since the 70’s as a director of a local travel agency. In 1986, he was involved in the formation of the National Tourism Council of Malaysia (NTCM) and became one of the two Vice Presidents and later volunteered to be its Secretary General and has held the position ever since.
As PTA president, he believes that the state government must play the leading role to complement the private sector but, the public sector must play an active role in strategic planning. “We need to ask ourselves what are our strengths and weaknesses in the way of tourism products and why we have so far failed to make a similar impact as other leading tourist states.”
He is confident that the state government has the political will and commitment to promote tourism in the state and is open to new ideas. Perak, he said, has good tourism products, some even surpassing other destinations in the country, which needed to be promoted.
The state needs to have its own identity, a tourism icon, that should not be changed from time to time as has happened in the past.
Mohd. Odzman outlined a 10-point plan to stimulate tourism in the state. Among them cleanliness at food outlets, improving public transportation, availability of literature on places of interest, tourist centres manned by pro-active personnel and well-trained and well-informed tour guides.
Following is the list of PTA’s board members:
President: Haji Mohd Odzman b Abdul Kadir
Vice-President: Dato’ Mohd Rafiai b Hj. Moktar
Secretary: Pn. Norzita bt Rabaai
Treasurer: Haji Mohammad Nopiah b Yahya
Board Members: Siva Pragasam Govindasamy, Mr. Jimmy S.H. Yeo, Mr. Calvin Ho Ch’an Hin, Mr. Gerard Sta Maria, Mr. Chin Chee Kong, Ms. Roselyn Lim Siew Leng, En. Rizal Ali bin Naizali, Pn. Putri Rafidah bt Megat Noh, Mr. Robin Arumugam, Mr. Peter J. Bucher and Mr. Beh Yang Toh.
JERRY FRANCIS
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i agree wt nasaree.
maybe we can do like pasar seni, kl. every weekend got programs…dancing, singing, stalls, cultural shows, etc.
everytime i go to kl, will not mis those shows.
simple but interesting !
quote”unfortunately,we dont have the guts.!do we?”
unquote.
i wud suggest a sub committee as follows;
ngo committee to market the ngo members.
student committee to market the students.
business committee to market the business enterprise.
pensioner committee to market the the pensioners.
etc.
lets get pro active and not re active to nasaree’s
comment.
I’m really excited to read about the newly revamped Perak Tourist Assocation helmed by Haji Mohd Odzman bin Abdul Kadir, a man most passionate about promoting tourism in Perak. The responses received indicate that the people of Ipoh are more than ready for a season of change to sweep over Ipoh, long regarded as a “dead town”.
I agree with the many suggestions by Nasaree on how to bring Ipoh back to life! We must involve the community at all levels and the street activities are thus a brilliant idea. Not only will such activities stir the economy, they will begin to attract foreigners to Ipoh and hence, foreign investment.
But first we have to clean up our act! Some of the unpalatable things that take place in our public areas must go to make way for the new. For a start, polo ground must be spruced up and the hawkers relocated immediately! Tourists who come to Ipoh are often disappointed and disgusted when they visit polo ground. The sight that greets them is a hawker-infested chaotic mess instead of a pleasant community park for family picnics, rest and relaxation. What they find is too much traffic choking the area and too many inappropriate activities for a small park to handle. Ipoh needs a governing body to manage its parks and gardens, which are central to the development of tourism in any city.
I agree with Nasaree about having street events, marches, gatherings, fireworks, exhibitions, art and craft etc BUT NONE OF THESE SHOULD TAKE PLACE AT POLO GROUND which is too small to handle the volume. These city-wide events should take place at Dataran Ipoh and Ipoh Padang and perhaps Taman D.R. Seenivasagam. And the hawkers can be relocated there or to some other designated hawker zone, away from residential the neighbourhoods.
I hope that PTA will take note. Keep residential areas purely residential. No city can attract tourists if the authorities cannot manage their parks and gardens well.
Lets call it the IPOH SUNDAy FESTIVAL or PESTA AHAD IPOH.
every sunday,every week,every month for 12 months
The programme.
0800 hours===mini walkathon
0830 hours===mini marathon
0900 hours===mini cyclithon
1000 hours===a special marching band and cultural dance parade.
1700 hours==special concert
2000 hours==special show.
2400 hours==good night.
all it takes is not political will.it does not matter who is in power.
all it takes is pure hard work.period!
Congratulations to Tuan Haji Mohd Odzman bin Abdul Kadir and his committee. Please permit me to pen down by instilling that the trust to all these promotion, activity creating and planning must be integrated among all the contributing agencies, i.e. hotels, transportation, marketing, eateries, current tourist attraction venues, recreational, local governmnet and municipals. No one is in isolation. Currently there are in place some ongoings events that welcome some collective spirit. Let us put aside whatever differences that we have and dedicate towards our common good and prosperity for all. Hopefully the cooperation and success of these exisiting events could be the platform cum benchmarks to embark on subsequent adventurous initiatives. As Ipoh residents, let us contribute by sprucing up whatever little we can within our own neighbourhood, for starters. Compliments again to this new committee on your endeavour. Create and leave some impact during your term. All the best.
Lemme add to Nasaree when he said, “What good is promoting Perak when the Ipoh city is dead!”
Ipoh City is not only dead. It is Dead, DEAD and DEADER than a DODO!! Yessiree!! It is that DEAD!!!
I can’t imagine any other city that is so DEAD!! There is practically no culture, no live arts and basically nothing here!! Ipoh city in its present state is fit for no one other than retirees. Don’t believe me? Ask Penangites, ask KLites. I mean you can walk through Kota Bharu and even see Mat Salleh tourists and backpackers around the town centre almost every day. When was the last time anyone see a Mat Salleh tourist in Ipoh town?
All the above suggestions by Nasaree sounds good to me. Why can’t we have marching bands marching their way through the main street every Sunday? Or maybe a static performance at Ipoh Padang. That’ll give the performers an outlet for their talents. Can’t we have local music schools organising classical performances?
Can’t we have magic shows, street performers etc etc.? I hope whoever is handling tourism look into ways on how to create activities to make Ipoh a vibrant city and to draw tourists.
Go for it Nasaree. Ipoh Echo loves your spirit.
The Editorial Board
The “special concert” ends at 1900 hours.the patrons would linger around the dataran and spill over at the greentown business centre.
by 2000 hours,a “special show” awaits them.a special runaway for the most innovative fashion show ever.
the fashion for cultural dress,modern,avande garde,simple yet chic,design to cultivate the habit to dress for the occassion.
coordinating the hair stylist,make up artist,models and fashion designer,the idea of the show is to attract foreign and metropolitan culture.
every sunday,without a miss,this “special fashion show” by perakians for perakians would guarantee ipoh city as the premier happening spot in malaysia!
hard work?yes it is.the marketing,advertising,promoting,selling and servicing
[mapss] has to be coordinated,monitored and enforce to make it a success.
we do have the resources.we have local and foreign students in our midst.we have ngo’s.we have the capability,manpower and technology.
unfortunately,we dont have the guts!do we?
and yes.it is pure hard work.
every sunday,every week,every month for 12 months.
dead serious!
At 1700 hours,a mini concert of rock,reggae,pop,rap,
heavy metal,other music genre,orchestra,cultural performance,dances and other entertainment of various races by ngo,perakians for perakians.
the location is at the dataran bandaraya.
every sunday without a miss for a full year and i guarantee you and your committee that perak youth would patronised the event like it belongs to them.
their enthusiasm would encourage other ipoh folks to come out.
business would flourish and the essence and compliments should be coordinated and monitored.
this “special concert” by perakians for perakians would attract all the tourist from the north,central and to the south of malaysia.
for ipoh city is alive and happening.
every sunday,every week,every month for 12 months.
hard work?of course its hard work.pure rhetoric would not make perak a the premier tourist destination.
what we need is more business,sports,social and entertainment[busser] events.
when ipoh city is alive,the people will survive.
Lets start with a weekly 0800 hrs.mini walkathon.Followed by a 0830 mini marathon.Followed by
0900 hrs.mini cycliton.Every Sunday without a miss for the full year.
Then,by 1000 hrs.a full marching band parade from the various schools in Perak.Plus,a cultural dance of various races on a modified lorry.
The route to take begins from the ipoh padang via ipoh parade and back to ipoh padang.
Every Sunday without a miss and i guarantee you and your committee that the people of ipoh would come out of their slumber and patronised the event.
Once this “special parade” has been established,business would then pick up and it has to be monitored to suit the essence and compliments of what business should flourish and be given extra help.
The marketing,advertising,promoting,selling and servicing[in that order] or MAPSS,of that “special parade” would guarantee an incoming tourist from
Alor Star,Langkawi,Penang,K.Lumpur,Shah Alam,Seremban and Malacca.
Incidentally,the “special parade” would attract the “backpackers,expats,business tourist as well as family tourist”.
Hard work?Of course it is hard work.Only by working hard can Perak and specifically Ipoh can be the tourist centre.Otherwise,like most politicians,talk is cheap.
Going forward 10,15 or 100 years,one still here of people saying the same thing all over again.Perak to attract and be a tourist centre.
Well,you can fool some people sometime but you cannot fool all the people all the time,yes?
What nonsense! I have heard it all before. Pure rhetoric!
What good is promoting Perak when the Ipoh city is dead!
the only way to promote Perak is true sheer hard work.it is pointless to suggest, plan or simply talk about it when the speaker does not bother to do the work of promoting. There is not even a coordinated marketing, advertising, promoting, selling and servicing plan. All we have is some people talking and dreaming of Perak being a vibrant tourist destination. Dream on folks. Ipoh city is dead!
Congratulation to Hj Osman. A tireless worker when it comes to tourism. I wish him best wishes and keep it up
Before all the master plan (presumably at strategic level), please make sure air travel is easily accessible by both domestic tourists. This not only encourages domestic tourism, but also international tourists with travel itinerary included to travel to Ipoh via air transportation rather than land transportations. Many international tourists would like to have connecting flights from KLIA to Ipoh for fast access to the city.
Please take this proposal seriously.
If I may, I would like to congratulate Haji Mohd Odzman bin Abdul Kadir on his election as president. From what I know about him he is been a stalwart supporter of tourism for so long while at the same time doing a tremendous amount of the sort of work that others often will not take on. I look forward to Perak’s tourism going forward while he is at the helm.