Smile more and be more courteous to visitors, exco urges Perak folk

IPOH: Perak folk need to smile more and be more courteous to visitors to make Visit Perak Year 2024 a success, says Loh Sze Yee.

The Perak tourism committee chairman said it would give tourists a memorable experience as they visit the state.

"We need the help of the people of Perak to make Visit Perak Year 2024 a success, as there is only so much the state government can do.

"Some things might seem trivial but it is important for tourists," he said in a press conference on launching the Perak GoGoGo website at the state secretariat building here on Friday (Dec 29).

"I ask that the people of Perak be mindful of their etiquette, be more courteous and polite and to smile more when welcoming visitors.

"This will give them a wonderful and memorable experience while visiting the state and Ipoh," he said.

"The people should also take care of the cleanliness of the state as this would portray our image to the world," he added.

On the Perak GoGoGo website, Loh said the content would be in Chinese to target the global Chinese market.

He said there were a lot of other promotional contents in Bahasa Malaysia and in English and the website would help to attract more visitors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

"The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry is trying to expand the market (to China).

"We are also trying to do the same," he said, adding that it was a challenge as there were no direct flights from China to Perak.

"We have had about 350,000 foreign tourists because of the direct flight from Singapore in previous years but the number of Chinese tourists is small," he added.

On the rising cases of Covid-19, Loh said he believed that it would not impact the Visit Perak Year campaign.

"I believe the Health Ministry is doing its best to monitor the situation.

"In my visits to other countries, there are not too many concerns although there are still some who take their own precautions," he said.

"Overall, I don't believe that it will be a problem," he added.