Perak Will Review Tourist Capacity For Pulau Sembilan

MANJUNG (Perak), May 25 (Bernama) -- Perak, one of the states in Malaysia will review the tourist arrival capacity for Pulau Sembilan with a view to limit it. State Tourism, Arts and Culture Committee chairman Nolee Ashilin Mohammed Radzi said the move was to protect the environment of the islands which had been gazetted as a State Park. In this regard, Nolee Ashilin said a guideline was being drawn up for tour operators on the matter. "In the last six months, there was an influx of tourists to Pulau Sembilan including from Singapore, Japan and China. "As such, we have to enforce several rules under the State Park, whereby the number of visitors allowed will be reviewed because there was a case of 300 people flocking to Pulau Lalang at the same time," she told reporters after closing the GP Joran BH 2015 fishing competition at Teluk Senangin beach, on Sunday, here. Nolee Ashilin said, with a new guideline, tourists wishing to go to Pulau Sembilan might have to pay a conservation charge, like in Sabah, of RM2 or RM3 (around US$0.60 or US$0.80) per person. She said the input of experts including from non-governmental organisations such as Sahabat Alam Malaysia, would be sought on crowd capacity for the islands in drawing up the guideline. "To date, visits to Pulau Sembilan are categorised as a spin-off activity from Pulau Pangkor and is an option for tourists who want to go fishing or scuba diving at the islands, or snorkelling at Pulau Giam. "We must draw up the guideline as we are worried the cleanliness of the beaches on Pulau Sembilan cannot be sustained. We have closed off the islands and will only reopen them in June," she added. -- BERNAMA