Boosting Muar tours

Boosting Muar tours

Tour operators and tour agents have been urged to explore and promote the heritage and history of places of interest to boost local tourism.

Johor Tourist Guide Association chairman Jimmy Leong said more should be written about the history, like important battles, to create awareness on the significance of certain sites.

Speaking to about 50 tourism frontliners such as tour guides, agents, homestay operators and Muar municipal councillors, he said it was important for tourists to know about the backgrounds of places of interest.

“Muar has many old buildings and shophouses with traditional and unique facades that say much about the town.

“We should learn about these buildings and highlight them to attract tourists,” he said at a seminar organised by Johor Malaysia Tourism and the Muar Municipal Council.

Leong said the industry should look for guides who were well-versed with the heritage, people and interesting periods in the history of these places.

The names of the places should also be studied to enable tourists to know their origins and meanings, he said.

He said, for example, there were two versions about the origins of the name Muar.

According to one version, Muar is based on the Malay word muara which means estuary, while the other tale says it is derived from mune aaru which in Tamil means three rivers in reference to Sungai Muar, Sungai Pahang and Sungai Serting in Negri Sembilan.

Meanwhile, Johor Malaysia Tourism Board director Noridah Kamarudin said that Muar had many products that made it a unique tourist destination.

-News courtesy of The Star-