Ipoh, known as the city of mining all this while, will soon be a heritage tourism city with its own exclusive image.
Ipoh Tourism City is also set to be the hotspot for visitors from in and out of the country just like Georgetown in Penang Island and Melaka.
This is among the initiatives and ideas by Mayor, Dato’ Rumaizi Baharin, to bring a new dimension to the city.
According to Rumaizi, the heritage tourism to be highlighted by Ipoh will partly retain its existing characteristics complete with improved facilities.
He said that Ipoh indeed has its own attractions with unique heritage values not found in other states.
“According to statistics, a total of 13.7 million visitors visited Perak throughout last year, which also made Perak the second state to receive the most number of visitors after Selangor.
“The total number of visitors who did not stay overnight was over 16 million. If we assume that half of this figure visited Ipoh, this is a big number.
“Thus, the allocation of good facilities and places of attraction is vital to draw visitors to Ipoh,” he said in an interview.
Ipoh being within the Kinta Valley Geopark also makes the city unique as it is surrounded by million-year-old limestone caves.
The Mayor said that his party has already planned to develop Mirror Lake at Gunung Rapat as a location for eco tourism.
“Mirror Lake will be developed with an eco park which will not disturb the natural environment.
“One of the two lakes there will be developed. We will change the quarry site into a tourism site.
“The Ipoh City Council (MBI) has decided to not renew the licence of the quarry.
“In fact, we have involved six quarry operators in the tourism development project at Mirror Lake.”
Rumaizi added that the city of Ipoh also needs to change from a city of mining into a low carbon city.
He explained that the change is actually in line with global advancement to make Ipoh a healthy city to benefit the city folks.
Rosli Mansor
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