By Zareef Muzammil
SHAH ALAM, July 15 — The state government hopes Tourism Selangor will ramp up its effort to empower the tourism sector again after the Covid-19 pandemic settles down.
Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari admitted that the outbreak, which hit the country over a year ago, had badly impacted the industry.
“The state had its own comprehensive planning and it was included in the Kita Selangor 1.0 and 2.0 Packages with some allocations provided to attract tourists to visit the state.
“Hopefully, we would be able to overcome all the challenges lying ahead in order to make Selangor a prominent tourist destination, whether domestically or internationally,” he said in a speech during a virtual celebration of Tourism Selangor 20th anniversary, yesterday.
The virtual event was broadcast on the Tourism Selangor Facebook platform through its Tourism Selangor’s Live Talk – Episode 2 series.
Amirudin said in 2019, the state managed to attract over 30 million tourists, which had subsequently created an economic spillover effect and contributed to the growth of the state tourism sector.
He said the success was driven by the hard work of the industry players who had explored new tourism destinations as well as promoting interesting places that have cultural diversity and quality.
On June 9, the state government had announced an allocation of RM2.55 million for the sustainability of the tourism industry through the Kita Selangor 2.0 Package.
The initiative includes grant assistance amounting to RM1 million, tourism vouchers, a tourism digitalisation training programme and cash aid to 16 tourism associations.
