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The Ramadhan Summer Festival is aimed at attracting Middle Eastern tourists who travel during the summer months in their countries, said Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen.
Ng said i-City was chosen as the venue as it is already a tourism centre that provides 24-hour tourism products and facilities.
“As Ramadan will fall during summer from now until 2015, the Tourism Ministry must strategize to ensure tourist arrivals from the Middle East are maintained during the peak summer months,” Ng said at a press conference on Wednesday June 9.
i-City will provide various activities suitable for the festival till the early hours of the morning, including late night shopping and food stalls.
“In i-City we have the office community and the tourism community. This focuses on the tourism community and a pioneer venture for i-City,” Eu Hong Chew, chief executive officer of I-Bhd told theedgeproperty.com.
i-City has been given the status of a Technoprenuer Campus where cosmopolitan lifestyle outlets can operate 24 hours with a number of pre-approvals for cultural and night tourism activities.
Ng said tourist arrivals from the Middle East from January to April 2010 numbered more than 50,000. Increases were noted from Saudi Arabia with 11.3%, UAE with 21% and Iran, 17%.
The total tourist arrivals from January to April 2010 were 7.629 million, an increase of 3.2% compared to the same period last year.
i-City is a RM2-billion development that sits on a 72-arce freehold site in Section 7, Shah Alam. It comprises corporate towers, office suites, hotels, data centre hub, innovation centre, serviced apartments and a shopping mall.
i-City has also invested RM10 million to create the City of Digital Lights as a nightscape tourism spot to attract local and foreign tourists. It has so far successfully attracted an average of 5,000 visitors per night.
Phase 1 of the of the lightscapes was launched in December 2009 and phase 2 will be ready on June 23 this year. The target is to increase the number of visitors to 10,000 per night upon the launch of phase 2.
As of May 2010, 156 units of its office units have been opened for occupancy and 80% of them have been sold to Al-Rajhi Banking Group.
The township, which began construction in 2005 is expected to be fully developed in another eight years.
