Up close and personal with Perak products
Tourists will soon get to experience how the items they buy are made
IPOH: Tourists to Perak will soon get a handson experience along with the products they buy in a bid to attract them to the state.
State Tourism Committee chairman Tan Kar Hing said the programme – called “101 Experiences in Perak” – would be launched by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu.
Using the famous Ipoh White Coffee as an example, he said while a cup would cost about RM2, a full-on experience package on how this was produced could be sold for between RM50 and RM100.
“Tourists will get to experience how coffee beans are roasted and processed into powder.
“We also plan to teach conventional coffeeshops how to package the whole experience through the Internet.
“If implemented well, it will add value to a product, making it more prestigious and with premium.
“We now have between 80 and 90 matured products ready to offer to tourists for this programme,” Tan told reporters after opening a travel fair here yesterday.
The programme will be launched at the world’s biggest travel trade fair, Interna- tionale Tourismus-Borse Berlin (ITB Berlin) in Germany next month.
He said last year, the state welcomed 267,245 foreign tourists, adding that as of June 2018, there were 151,471 visitors.
“There is still room for improvement,” he said.
On the plan to gazette the mangrove swamp in Kuala Gula near Kampung Dew, Taiping, as a permanent forest reserve to protect the firefly habitat, Tan said this was now at its final stage before being presented to the state exco meeting.
“I am not sure how big the area will be but we will gazette a large part of the swamp.
“The state is now waiting for reports on technical aspects like the river measurement and the firefly habitat.
“We don’t have an exact time frame but we will try to do it as soon as possible. I’ll be visiting the area,” he said.
Tan was responding to reports that several berembang or mangrove apple trees along the Sepetang River near the mangrove swamp had been felled.
It is learned that seven trees were chopped down by fishermen there on Sunday.
“I’ve read about it. I understand that it was done illegally by farmers to expand their farms,” he said.