by BERNAMA/ pic by BERNAMA

TERENGGANU’S tourism industry will be creating history with the arrival of 166 tourists from China on a chartered flight this coming Monday.

State Tourism, Culture and Information Technology Committee chairman Ariffin Deraman said the group of tourists from Fuzhou — capital city of the Fujian province — together with a number of businessmen are scheduled to arrive in Kuala Terengganu at 11am.

“This is the first time they are coming directly on a chartered flight to Terengganu and it’s a good development for the state’s tourism industry.

“We expect that after this, there will be more chartered flights from China coming here and we are also working at drawing tourists from other destinations like Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea,” he told a news conference after attending a state executive council (exco) meeting in Kuala Terengganu yesterday.

Ariffin said the group arriving on Monday is expected to have a five-day, four-night stay at a number of interesting tourist spots like Pulau Redang, Tasik Kenyir and Kuala Terengganu.

He said the state government is actively promoting tourism products in Kuala Terengganu, such as the drawbridge and museum to Chinese tourists, so that they would have more choices to visit instead of just focusing on resort islands as these islands would be closed during the monsoon season.

On another development, Ariffin said this year’s National Day celebration in Kuala Terengganu would feature something different in the form of a trishaw procession involving Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar and other state exco members.

He said the contingents — comprising participants from government departments and agencies, the private sector, higher education institutions and schools — would be bigger this time compared to last year.

“So far, almost 100 contingents have registered for the parade and we expect the number of participants to increase in the next two or three days.

“We are also expecting the Yang Dipertuan Muda Terengganu, Tengku Muhammad Ismail, to grace the occasion in Batu Burok, (which is) sche- duled to start at 9.30am,” he said, adding that the National Day celebration would be marked with a spiritual programme and fireworks show, among other activities.