By : Reports by Chuah Bee Kim
THE Johor tourism authorities are planning to set up an information centre in Kuala Lumpur to attract more Arab visitors to the state.
He said tourists from the Middle East used to flock to Paris, Milan and New York but since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, they now preferred to spend their summer vacations in Asia, especially in Malaysia.
"These visitors usually bring their family members along and stay for as long as two weeks," he said, adding that the government, through the JTAC, had aggressively promoted Johor in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.
Long said statistics showed that more than 4,000 Arab tourists visited Malaysia in the first four months of the year, as compared to about 2,000 for the same period last year.
The number of Arab tourists to Malaysia surged to almost 7,000 last year compared to about 2,500 in 2001.
On another issue, Long said work on a structure to prevent riverbank erosion along a 300-metre stretch at Sungai Tiram would begin in September.
The two waves of floods in Johor had caused the riverbank to erode, resulting in the river becoming shallow, according to Maulizan Bujang (BN-Tiram).
Other on-going work in Tiram includes the repairing of bridges in Kampung Tenang, Kampung Sulati and Kampung Atmo. The repairs are expected to be completed in August.
"The rehabilitation of Sungai Tiram is also expected to start in August," Long said.
Long also said that the state was allocated RM5 million under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to maintain six recreation forests in Johor.
"RM150,000 has been allocated this year for the maintenance of Sungai Bantang Recreation Forest in Bekok," he said, adding that the forest received 72,000 visitors last year.
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