Improve access for travels to inner Johor

TOURISM industry players in Johor hope the state government will give special attention to districts outside Johor Baru as the state prepares for Visit Johor Year 2026.

Muhd Afiq Haziq, who runs a homestay in Tangkak, said public transportation should be improved.

“The majority of my visitors are Malaysians who come here by car, allowing them to visit Tangkak without much trouble. That is not the case for a lot of foreign visitors.

“There are many visitors keen to have a quiet vacation in the outskirts but they do not know how to reach those places.

“Many may not even be aware that we have such places in Johor,” said Muhd Afiq, whose homestay is surrounded by padi fields.

Pontian homestay owner Tan Kian Hui said Johor has great potential to attract more international and domestic tourists.

Tan says his homestay in Pontian is fully booked almost every weekend.

“My homestay is fully booked almost every weekend.

“If the state government improves the roads and public transport, we will see more people visiting our state,” he said.

Johor tourism, environment, heritage and culture committee chairman K. Raven Kumar said the state government would ensure public infrastructure was well maintained, to attract visitors.

He said the tourism industry experienced encouraging recovery since the border with Singapore reopened.

“We started seeing significant improvements in the tourism industry.

“We will keep our hopes up as we prepare for 2026, which is Visit Johor Year,” he told StarMetro.

Raven said the state government would ensure projects that improved public infrastructure would be given special attention.

“We have already started the process last year with upgrading works at Johor Zoo and Tanjung Piai.

“There were also many improvements made in Kota Tinggi, especially to roads.

“We will ensure that such upgrades will be done without any delay,” he added.