SINGAPORE, Tourism Perak showcased the state's finest offerings at the inaugural GO Malaysia Fair held from April 26 to 28 at the Marina Square mall here, advancing the momentum of Visit Perak Year 2024 (VPY2024). Its chairman Datuk Mohamad Kamil Shafie highlighted the agency's role as a strategic partner of GO Malaysia Fair by assembling 12 representatives from the state in Singapore. This initiative is part of a promotional programme aimed at achieving VPY2024's targets of 8 to 10 million tourist arrivals and generating RM10 billion in revenue. "Our team is currently also in Japan and South Korea for promotional purposes. Here, the players we brought are from various categories such as food and beverage, health, leisure, and hotels. "Under VPY2024, our target is 350,000 international tourist arrivals, and if we look at previous years, the highest international tourist arrivals were from Singapore," he told Bernama when met at the fair on Saturday. Mohd Kamil said Tourism Perak hopes continuous particip ation in various travel fairs in Singapore and around the world would showcase the diverse attractions available in all parts of the state including the Royal Belum State Park, Tasik Cermin, Kuala Sepetang and Pulau Pangkor. Booths at the Fair under the Tourism Perak umbrella include Chek Hup Sdn Bhd renowned for its Ipoh white coffee, and Riverbug Perak offering exciting adventure experiences such as Kampar River white water rafting and Dinosaur Encounter World adventure park. Meanwhile, the GO Malaysia Fair organised by Unique Event and Exhibition in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia also saw the participation of the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) to promote health tourism. MHTC Director for South Asia Market Suryani Mustapa said through GO Malaysia Fair, the council hoped to promote the plethora of specialist expertise and the latest cutting-edge technologies available in medical centres and private hospitals in Malaysia. "Visitors to the fair can speak to the participating five medical ce ntres or hospitals such as KPJ Johor, KPJ Puteri, Subang Jaya Medical Centre, OPTIMAX, Sunway Medical Centre Penang and Regency Specialist Hospital, as well as get the latest promotion on healthcare packages available," she said. Meanwhile, the Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore, Datuk Dr Azfar Mohamad Mustafar, emphasised during his keynote address at the grand opening of the GO Malaysia Fair that the travel fair not only showcased the best of what the country has to offer in tourism but also brought people closer. "In the current world that is characterised by geopolitical rivalries, we feel divided. But travel has the power to bring us together as it transcends border, culture and languages," he said. Azfar said in 2023, Malaysia recorded 8.3 million tourist arrivals from Singapore and expressed hope to increase this figure to 10 million arrivals this year through Tourism Malaysia's progressive approach. Source: BERNAMA News Agency