SEPANG: Sports tourism will be included in the Selangor government's annual calendar next year to boost the Visit Selangor Year 2025 themed 'Surprising Selangor,’ said Datuk Seri Amiruddin Shari.
The Selangor Mentri Besar said many sports activities held in Selangor can attract both local and foreign tourists to help state’s meet its goal of eight million tourists this year.
"We are also considering including two events in the calendar, namely cycling and pickleball.
"In addition, for the sports tourism sector, for example, we have two paragliding sites in Jugra and Kuala Kubu Bharu," he told the media after launching the Visit Selangor Year 2025 logo during a visit to the Selangor Tourism pavilion held in conjunction with the Malaysian MotoGP 2024 here on Sunday (Nov 3).
He said last year, Selangor recorded 6.45 million tourists while this year the target is seven million.
To achieve the tourist arrivals target, Amiruddin said the state government will announce more plans for its tourism development programme during the tabling of Selangor Budget 2025 expected to be held middle of this month.
"We have implemented several measures including restoring homestay in villages to enable them to operate and increase income," he said.
Regarding the Malaysian MotoGP 2024, Amiruddin said a total of 200,000 visitors are expected to attend the last day of the motorcycling event, held over three days starting Friday (Nov 1).
"Programmes like these will be made a model of how we want to encourage tourists to visit Selangor. This will to some extent provide a shift to the state's tourism sector," he said.
During the three-day Malaysian MotoGP 2024, Tourism Selangor held various programmes to promote the Selangor tourism sector, namely extreme tourism exhibitions, food and local fruit exhibition. - Bernama
