By Rosli Mansor
A sum of RM150 million has been allocated to upgrade Ipoh’s Sultan Azlan Shah Airport as part of the plan at improving Perak’s infrastructure.
According to Executive Councillor for Tourism, Arts and Culture Tan Kar Hing, the project is being spearheaded by the state’s Economic Planning Unit with the approval of the Ministry of Transport. The preliminary stage of the planning is now over.
“We’re deciding on an appropriate business model for the upgrading exercise,” he told reporters during the Year 2020 Meet and Greet session held at Tower Regency Hotel, Ipoh recently.
“The project will be managed by Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad. It’ll involve the lengthening of the existing runway and the upgrading of amenities to ensure comfort for end-users,” Tan added.
Tourism Perak will adopt five strategies to spur the state tourism industry for the Year 2020. They are infrastructure development, role model, diverse promotional network, programme regeneration and conservation and research.
On a related matter, the head of Visit Malaysia 2020 Secretariat, Dato’ Ammar Abdul Ghafar, said the collaboration between Tourism Malaysia and Tourism Perak in promoting tourism products is ongoing but will be done with much vigour forthwith.
“We’ve conducted ten familiarisation trips all over the state to kickstart the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign,” he remarked.
“Besides an abundance of interesting tourism products on offer, Perak has a good transportation system to boot, ” Ammar added. “Hopefully, the airport upgrading works will complement and boost the state tourism industry.”
Over 200 guests were present during the session. They included tourism players, tour operators and hoteliers.
