By Rosli Mansor
Hop-On Hop-Off (HOHO) bus service which brings tourists around the city will be upgraded when two more new buses start operating.
Several new interesting routes were also introduced such as Tambun, Gopeng, and Batu Gajah.
State Tourism and Culture Committee chairman, Tan Kar Hing said the addition of the tourist buses was an effort to increase tourist arrivals into the city.
According to him, since it was introduced, HoHo bus service has attracted approximately 1000 passengers including local tourists. “Recently, we have collaborated with five strategic partners, BlueBlue Playground, BookXcess Kong Heng Ipoh, Chang Jiang White Coffee, Cycledios and Wow Shop.
“With this collaboration, Hoho bus passengers can get a discount of up to 20 per cent when visiting all five of the premises which are the tourist attractions here,” he said.
Earlier, Kar Hing joined about 25 travel agency representatives from Hong Kong, sightseeing around the city boarding the Hoho bus as one of the initiatives to promote state tourism products.
One representative from Hong Kong, Kwok Chung Alan, 38, said the HoHo bus service is essential to facilitate tourists visiting all the tourism products.
“I am very excited to sightsee the city of Ipoh by HoHo bus. Ipoh City is like Hong Kong in the 60s-70s. I saw a few similarities in the buildings and people’s cultures.
“We were briefed by the tour guide and were brought to visit and shop around Ipoh. It was very interesting, although the weather here is rather hot but very exciting,” he said.
Hoho bus still offers ticket promotions until the end of December, which is RM12 for local tourists and RM35 for foreigners.
The Hoho bus service started its operation on March 23 at the initial stage involving three buses.
It involves one half-roof bus and two full-roof buses that operate on Saturdays and Sundays only from 8.30am to 9pm.
The bus will go through 13 stops starting from Meru Raya Terminal to the tourist attractions in Ipoh’s old town.
