LANGKAWI, Sept 14 — The Langkawi Development Authority (Lada) is expecting the arrival of about 400,000 tourists over a period of three and a half months with the reopening of the resort island under the travel bubble programme, starting this September 16.
Its chief executive officer, Nasaruddin Abdul Muttalib said with the arrival of this number of tourists, Langkawi was expected to receive about RM165 million from the money spent by these tourists.
“Based on a study conducted by Lada and USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia), the average per day expenditure of a local tourist on the island is around RM412.
“The expenditure includes on accommodation, food, transportation and entrance tickets to the tourism centres in Langkawi,” he said at a news conference, here, today.
Nasaruddin said for the initial period following the reopening of Langkawi to tourists, Lada was targeting a modest figure of about 2,000 tourist arrivals per day and 30,000 within a two-week period this month.
“We don’t want to be too excited, targeting a high number of tourists until the situation becomes out of control as what is important is good control over the presence of tourists here.
“The number of tourists will rise from time to time when the number of flights and ferry services to this island increases, expected to be soon,” he added.
Nasaruddin also said that on the first day of Langkawi’s reopening to tourists, there would be five flights from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Selangor.
On the ferry services, he said there would be three trips from Kuala Perlis and the number would be increased with the reopening of the Kuala Kedah Ferry Terminal when the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) in Kuala Kedah ends on September 19.
“Entry to the island in stages will enable the tourism industry players make sufficient preparations to receive more tourists in future,” he added.
— Bernama
