I-Berhad gets praise for i-City

SHAH ALAM: The Government is appreciative of I-Berhad for constantly coming up with new tourist attractions in its iconic i-City.

Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said I-Berhad had succeeded in turning a piece of former plantation land into a place beyond people’s imagination and expectation.

“Today, i-City is one of the 10 iconic products in Selangor and is family-friendly with many products such as the City of Digital Lights, wax museum, water theme park and snow walk, among others,” said Nazri during the Hilton i-City Hotel ground breaking ceremony yesterday.

Nazri said it was important to have new products to entice tourists to come to Malaysia.

“When I go overseas and whenever I am interviewed by the press there, they would ask what’s new in Malaysia,” Nazri said at the event.

He said the country could continue having new tourism products only with the help of the private sector.

Fun for all: Nazri and I-Berhad executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong (left) enjoying a ride on the carousel at I-City in Shah Alam.

In view of this, added Nazri, the Government offered the private sector certain facilities such as soft loans for the purpose.

On another matter, Nazri said the number of Chinese tourists coming into Malaysia has increased in spite of the MH370 tragedy.

(Chinese nationals were among the passengers of the aircraft, which disappeared en route to Beijing from KLIA on March 8, 2014.)

“When I asked them why they like Malaysia, they said it is because we can speak Mandarin and the dialects here.

“Many Chinese tourists don’t speak English so they find it convenient to come to Malaysia as it’s like home,” said Nazri.

He added that since China was currently quite polluted, the Chinese tourists enjoyed Malaysia because of the warm weather and blue skies.

“And of course they love our food and one of the things they like is bak kut teh. So we should leverage on that,” said Nazri.

He said since China was now one of the main source countries for tourism, the Malaysian government has made it easy for them to travel into the country.

Nazri said the ministry expected a spike in tourism arrivals from China in 2016 because of this.