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Council Gears Up to Attract More Tourists to Langkawi

The Langkawi Tourism Action Council is optimistic in its effort to attract 2.4 million tourists to the resort island this year.
The body was aggressively promoting the island's charms to capture new markets and retain existing ones, said its general manager, Shaharudin Itam.
"Langkawi is safe," he said, focusing on the fact that a disaster warning system has been installed to alert people should a tremor of earthquake measuring six or above on the Richter scale hits Indonesia.
Shaharudin said the council's main aim is to reach out to Scandinavian countries through its campaign.
"Our winter package is designed with goals of attracting the Scandinavians."
Shaharudin was in Stockholm in November to lay the groundwork to tap the Scandinavian market.
He mentioned that the mid-summer packages were also targeted at the Middle East where tourists usually go on holiday in June.
"We are confident of meeting the projected tourist arrivals for the year with the right strategy and approach," he said. Langkawi had attracted 1.9 million tourists in 2003 and 2.18 million last year.
The foreign media coverage of the December 26 tsunami had made tourists hesitant to visit Langkawi by stoking fears of natural disasters since.
"58 media organisations from around the world were invited recently to show them that the tsunami had not seriously affected Langkawi," he added.

Langkawi 10/04/2005