Personalities

YB Dato’ Nolee Ashilin binti Mohammed Radzi

Dato’ Nolee Ashilin considers Perak fortunate because it is located along the developed Peninsular Malaysia’s West Coast. The state’s considerable size allows various types of travel and tourism products and attractions to flourish. These attractions are also well distributed throughout Perak rather than being concentrated in only one or two areas within the state. “Perak receives repeat tourists because of the diversity in its tourism products that allow them to enjoy different experiences at different corners of Perak. The state has no problem in meeting tourists’ expectations in savouring various types of travel experiences,” she claims.

By Juhan Kamaruddin on February 20, 20179 minutes read

Perak State Executive Councillor for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Communications and Multimedia

Interviewing the approachable and down-to-earth Dato’ Nolee Ashilin is such a pleasant experience. To Gaya Travel Magazine, she personifies what Perak is all about: easy-going, continuously progressing and full of promise. Dato’ Nolee Ashilin, affectionately known as Dato’ Nolee, shares with us on how the state is streamlining its tourism industry and how it is preparing for Visit Perak Year 2017.

Perak’s time to shine

Perak only began to focus on tourism as one of the state’s main income generator in the last ten years, making it pretty new in the tourism business. With the support from the state, more plans are being rolled out in making the state more appealing to tourists. In 2015, the state recorded 7.96 million domestic and 265,794 international tourist arrivals, according to the Malaysian Statistics Department and Tourism Malaysia respectively.

The state is highly accessible because many of its tourism products can be reached using the North-South Expressway (PLUS) – many attractions are situated close to every highway exit in Perak, for example Tanjung Malim to access Sungai Klah and Sungkai Wildlife Reserve; Gopeng for agro-tourism; and Tapah to reach Lata Kinjang. Another accessible popular destination in Perak using the North-South expressway is Taiping, which is doing well in attracting tourists, especially on weekends and public holidays, making it difficult to secure accommodation during those times. Taiping also receives funding from the federal government since it falls within the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) to upgrade its infrastructure such as heritage trails, zoo and parks.

Perak has a lot to offer but is still largely undiscovered by many travellers, especially those from overseas. Dato’ Nolee concurs that the state has many tourism offerings that are yet to be promoted to them. To make these elusive tourism spots more visible, the state government has initiated the Perak Tourism Blueprint 2016-2020, which groups the tourism destinations, products and attractions into seven important clusters. Together with the icons identified as Perak’s unique selling points, the success of these clusters depend on the various activities held within them, organised by the respective tourism cluster committee members comprising stakeholders and tourism industry players.

“We involve the committees in coming up with ways to encourage visitors to stay in any one cluster not just for one night but for a few nights, for instance within the Lenggong-Grik-Pengkalan Hulu cluster, travellers get to experience the UNESCO Archaeological Heritage Site and agro-farm in Lenggong; Tasik Banding and Royal Belum in Grik; and border tourism at Pengkalan Hulu since it is home to Betong (border town popular for shopping), hot spring and tin mines that are open to tourists,” Dato’ Nolee expounds. In terms of Pengkalan Hulu, Dato’ Nolee attests that the state recently approved the funding for the development of a floating market within the area to further enhance its appeal.

Besides the already established icons, Perak is also promoting its agro-tourism packages, which are considered new. Perak already identified five to six agro-parks that are tourist ready for them to be promoted, the latest being the Perak Agrotourism Resort in Tanjung Tualang, developed by the Perak State Agricultural Development Corporation and launched by the Sultan of Perak DYMM Tuanku Sultan Dr. Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah. “Every year, the state introduces new products via new tourism packages developed together with Tourism Malaysia Perak Office. For 2016, the state promotes agro-tourism. The year before, the state positioned itself as the hub for team-building and outdoor activities,” she adds.

Preparing for Visit Perak Year 2017

When asked about the state’s preparation for Visit Perak Year (VPY) 2017, Dato’ Nolee says that there are many things that still need to be done and the state is already halfway through, with the second half of the year concentrating on participating in domestic travel fairs and conducting business-to-business matchings. The state is in the midst of putting together special packages for VPY 2017 that runs throughout the year specifically for the domestic market.

Dato’ Nolee further mentions that Perak will also organise promotional travel fair in Singapore, which is Perak’s largest international market, besides participating in the World Travel Mart in London in November 2016. The state intends to capitalise on those two international fairs to get more travel and tour operators to join in selling Perak tourism packages in conjunction with Visit Perak Year 2017. The state modestly targets in receiving 6.5 million tourist arrivals in 2017.

Investments pouring in

Dato’ Nolee has witnessed tremendous increase in terms of interest towards Perak’s tourism products, therefore contributing to its growth. “In the last few years, we have seen an influx of tourism activities in Perak, especially eco-tourism, which is the state’s biggest strength, besides other products that can be showcased domestically and internationally. As such, more tourism investors are coming to the state,” she clarifies. At the moment, most investment in tourism are done by local investors.

Perak also receives a growing number of investments from overseas such as the Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) and certain international hotels such as the upcoming Pullman Ipoh and Novotel Taiping, including the already opened Hotel Ibis Styles Ipoh. Dato’ Nolee claims that these big names are coming to Perak because of MAPS, considered as catalyst for more international investors to come to the state, especially to Ipoh.

Ipoh gaining more attention

Ipoh has also been garnering attention in the last few years. “There is an increase in terms of hospitality and services in the form of new hotels and cafes opening up in the city, especially in the last two years when Ipoh sees a whopping 50% jump from the previous year in terms of investment in those businesses,” Dato’ Nolee reveals. There are many reasons why Ipoh suddenly appears on the travellers’ and tourists’ maps. “Probably travellers are seeking other destinations besides the ones that are already established like Penang and Melaka,” she opines.

Dato’ Nolee is pleasantly surprised and ecstatic about Ipoh’s inclusion in the Lonely Planet’s list as one of the top ten destinations to visit in Asia in 2016, which she sees as an opportunity for the city and the state to obtain more international visibility since Lonely Planet is highly regarded internationally and influential. “We see this as not only the chance to attract tourists, but also investments to the city and state to make Perak’s tourism industry more vibrant, enriching the types of products being offered,” remarks Dato’ Nolee.

Gopeng as eco-tourism hot spot

When asked which spot in Perak is her favourite in terms tourism, Dato’ Nolee quickly mentions Gopeng. “But of course I am biased since it is my constituency,” she chuckles. “Gopeng holds so much potential and the Sungai Kampar area, which is part of Gopeng, is actually well established in terms of eco-tourism – the Gopeng tourism committee is made up of people who are passionate about the area. It boasts a number of caves, especially the beautiful Gua Tempurung that is known for its length and history. Gopeng is also home to notable rapids suitable for whitewater-rafting,” Dato’ Nolee promulgates.

She further states that the eco-tourism players around Gopeng are already established and flourishing. In fact, there are not enough rooms to cater to tourists. “To fulfil the demand, the increase in the number of new rooms depends on the private investors and tourism players since there are no more government land for the state to develop. The spillover from this demand on tourism will prompt other private parties to create new tourism products to further enhance Gopeng’s offerings, for example the restoration of Gopeng old town’s pre-war shophouses where travellers can frolic and have a meaningful respite amidst a charming wistful setting,” explains Dato’ Nolee.

Challenges in tourism

The challenge faced by Perak, particularly Ipoh, lies in terms of logistics and public transport. Since the city is gaining wider interest, more tourists are flocking to the city. The express ETS coach from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh is a boon to the city’s tourism industry, but also opens up new issues that need solving such as connectivity between the Ipoh train station to the other parts of Ipoh via feeder buses and taxis, which unfortunately is not consistent and frequent. “The Ipoh authorities need to work with the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) to regulate the taxis and obtain newer vehicles to come in, including improving the city bus services. Recently, the state launched MyBus, which is under a new initiative between Perak Transit and SPAD to solve connectivity within the city,” notes Dato’ Nolee.

Another challenge is the readiness of the community to think tourism. “The local community still needs to realise that tourists generally contribute to the local economy, thus must be treated well, just like what can be seen in Thailand and the Philippines. I am not sure if the other cities has been able to do so, perhaps Melaka has been able to do it well, but Ipoh still needs more improvement in embracing tourists so that they will feel belonged,” asserts Dato’ Nolee.

Lessons from travels

Due to her extensive travelling, Dato Nolee is able to bring home interesting ideas gained from abroad. “Tourism is about creative ideas and not having to reinvent the wheel. The state can learn so much from the other foreign destinations. That is why I intend to send as many as possible from my team to go out as much as possible to learn and pick up things on how tourism is done in destinations that are already established since we are still new compared to Penang, Langkawi and Sabah, which all have been in focussing on tourism for the last 25 years,” she elaborates.

Perak emulates tourism initiatives that have successfully been implemented in the other destinations such as the mural artworks that are now gracing Ipoh’s cafes and walkways. Dato’ Nolee states that the art initiative will be extended to Taiping soon.

Hope for the future

In the future, Perak targets to become one of the main tourism destinations in Malaysia for tourists coming in internationally. “We want to be on the same level as Sabah, Penang, Langkawi and Melaka,” claims Dato’ Nolee.

Towards that end, she is determined to rally everyone from the community, private sector and government agencies to give tourism due importance since this economic sector brings in the much needed revenue. “If we pull this right, we will be able to uplift the economic standing of the rakyat, especially those located outside urban areas, where community-based tourism can be successfully carried out,” Dato Nolee foresees.

However, the state still requires more support and understanding from the community at large, including the private sector. “Besides competing with each other, tourism players in Perak also need to work with each other for the greater good of the state tourism industry. It does require time for the Perak tourism players to reach the stage where Malacca and Sabah are now, but it is doable. Everybody needs to play their part to make Perak tourism industry more successful,” urges Dato’ Nolee. On the same note, she also says that the various homestays in Perak have been showing strong support towards the state’s tourism aspirations and continues to attract many travellers.

By having a leader who is passionate about tourism, forward-thinking and strongly propagates co-operation among the industry players like Dato’ Nolee, the state’s tourism industry is definitely heading to better years ahead.