New theme parks expected to attract more tourists to Johor over the next few years

Tee (on a bike) and Siow (second from left) with other guests at the unveiling of the MCM indoor theme park at Capital21 shopping mall in Jalan Tampoi, Johor Baru.

JOHOR BARU: Johor is set to attract more domestic and foreign visitors with more outdoor and indoor theme parks to be opened in the state within the next few years.

State Tourism, Trade and Consumerism Committee chairman Datuk Tee Siew Kiong said Johor has 10 indoor and outdoor theme parks, making it the state with the most theme parks in the country.

He said the theme parks had positioned and strengthened Johor as one of the leading regional players offering family-based entertainment for children and young adults.

“Johor’s strategic location is an advantage to attract visitors from the region to the theme parks,” Tee said at the unveiling of the concept of the indoor theme park at Capital21 shopping mall at Jalan Tampoi here.

He said another theme park would be opened in Iskandar Puteri, Iskandar Malaysia, with an investment of more than RM100mil but declined to give more details on the project.

Tee said tourist arrivals would create economic spillover to the state tourism sector including retail, hospitality, food and beverage and transportation.

He said Johor now is a top tourism destination with the Department of Statistics figures recording 7.4 million domestic tourists in 2016, which was the highest in the country.

Tee said statistics from Tourism Malaysia placed Johor in the third spot in terms of attracting foreign tourists, with about 2.6 million tourists visiting the state in 2016.

“The number of tourist arrivals increased significantly from 3.9 million recorded in 2012 to 10 million tourists comprising locals and foreigners visiting the state,” he said.

Capital World Ltd group chief executive officer Siow Chien Fu said the opening of the RM260mil indoor theme park has been slated for August this year.

He said the theme park, with a floor area of 525,000 sq ft, occupied three floors of the shopping mall with three main components – movie, cartoon and music (MCM).

“We are targeting about one million visitors to the theme park in our first year and will work closely with Tourism Johor to promote the product at the international level,” said Siow.

He said the indoor theme park is the largest in South-East Asia and the fifth largest in the world, adding that there would also be an indoor circus, with seating capacity for a thousand people.

Siow said there would also be musical shows featuring performances by local and international artistes to attract musical fans from the region.