Extend hours, JB shops told

All set: Long launching the Mega Sales Carnival 2007 and New Zon Website in Johor Baru recently.

The state government urged shopping malls operators to extend the retail hours in an effort to boost shopping tourism in Johor.

State Tourism and Environment Committee chairman Freddie Long said they encouraged shopping complexes to close at 11pm.

“We want to give more time for the tourists to shop here as over a quarter of the tourists’ expenditure are spent on shopping.

“This is a huge sum of money,” he said at the launch of the Mega Sales Carnival at The Zon here recently.

Long added that the government was planning to organise more activities to attract tourists to spend more time and stay overnight in the state.

“The Johor International Orchid Show and Pasir Gudang Inter-national Kite Festival are some of the annual events that lure visitors to come here,” he said.

He said the state recorded a monthly average of 1.2million tourists this year.

He said Singaporeans made up 80% of the total visitors, followed by Indonesians, China nationals, Japanese and South Koreans.

“About 40,000 Singaporeans enter the state daily and the figure would increase to 100,000 during public and school holidays,” he said.

Long assured that Johor was still a safe place with the additional efforts by police to make their presence felt at all corners.

The ratio of police personnel and residents was 1:1548 and is expected to reduce to 1:640 residents by Oct.

Check out ZON's Website - http://www.zon.com.my/

Source : STAR
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