By Nadiah Zamlus
SHAH ALAM, Nov 7 — The number of domestic tourists in Selangor reached a total 1.86 million from January until June this year, the state legislative assembly was told today.
Selangor Culture, Tourism, Malay Customs and Heritage committee chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari said this marked a four per cent increase in domestic tourism in Selangor over the same period of time in 2018.
“The promotional programmes are continuously carried out by Tourism Selangor to boost tourism activities in the state.
“It has participated with several programmes and groups such as the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Fair and Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (Mita) to reach the target market of domestic tourism within the country,” he said.
Abdul Rashid was responding to a question by Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran when asked on domestic tourism and the Selangor government’s initiative to attracts tourists into the state.
He said Tourism Selangor had conducted schools visits throughout the year under the ‘Jelajah Squad Kembara Sekolah’ programme, which was introduced to educate school students as well as teachers on the various tourism products available in Selangor.
He said the interactive programmes was to create awareness and encourage domestic tourism among the people of Selangor.
“The efforts to boost the number of tourists in the state is also done in collaboration with airline companies, such as Malindo Air and Air Asia, in organising the ‘Familiarisation Trip’ programme or FAM Trip.
“Through this programme, we hope the tourism and travel agencies from outside of Selangor would formulate packages that can be offered to the domestic market in Malaysia,” he said.