About 50 luxury cruise ships with an estimated 25,000 foreign tourists are expected to make a stopover in Melaka during the Visit Melaka Year 2024 (TMM 2024).
State Tourism, Heritage, Art and Culture Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman said the state government, through the Tourism Promotion Division (BPP), will work with agencies and luxury cruise companies to offer various attractive travel packages to tourists.
“We also want to ensure that tourists who board luxury cruise ships can stay overnight in Melaka; now they just stop over for a few hours to visit the state’s tourism attractions.
“Many programmes have been lined up, and special packages will also be offered to tourists visiting Melaka,” he said after welcoming the MS Amadea cruise ship to the Melaka Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Safety complex (ICQS) with 390 tourists, mostly from Germany, recently.
Abdul Razak further said that this year, about 30 to 40 luxury cruise ships have responded positively to anchoring in Melaka waters and bringing their tourists to the state.
Meanwhile, he said even though Melaka does not have a dedicated berth for luxury cruise ships, it is not a big issue for the state when it comes to luring cruise tourists.
He said this is because cruise tourists are usually taken by smaller boats from the ship to the ICQS pier and that facilities at the complex are complete and capable of handling the entry of tourists in large groups. – Bernama
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