KUALA TERENGGANU, Oct 10 — The Terengganu government will rebrand Kampung Cina here to Chinatown in an effort to attract more domestic and foreign tourists.
State Tourism, Culture, Environment and Climate Change Committee chairman Datuk Razali Idris said his team will meet with Chinese non-governmental organisations (NGO) soon to discuss various matters, including aspects of renewal in line with the rebranding of the location.
He said the use of the international name Chinatown is seen to be more commercial and expected to attract more foreign tourists to the state.
“We plan to rename Kampung Cina to Chinatown because it can be found everywhere…even in Kuala Lumpur as well as around the world. If we rename it Chinatown and make it a product in our tourism calendar, maybe it will attract tourists from Europe.
“We need to internationalise local products. If we talk about Kampung Cina, how long will it remain like that,” he said at the 2023 Terengganu Chinese Peranakan Festival here last night which was also attended by Terengganu Chinese Peranakan Association advisor Alex Lee Yun Ping.
Meanwhile, Razali said the state government also plans to develop Kampung Fikri in Setiu and Kampung Tiruk in Marang as Community-based Tourism (CBT) locations next year.
He said that apart from Kuala Terengganu, both locations also have people of Chinese Peranakan descent and these locations can be highlighted as new tourism products in the state.
“We want to try to ‘leverage’ on the strengths we have from the aspect of culture and heritage in the Chinese Peranakan community in Terengganu as they possess a uniqueness such as eating with their hands, having a daily diet that includes budu (fermented anchovies) and belacan and their houses are like Malay homes,” he said.
Razali said non-Muslim tourists do not need to fear coming to Terengganu due to the implementation of tourism guidelines, which cover dressing etiquette.
He said the guidelines do not involve non-Muslim communities, and they are not guidelines that are a form of law that are punitive.
“The government drew up these guidelines to educate so that the community will observe dressing etiquette according to our culture.
“Since these guidelines were implemented in 2020, no individual has been arrested or punished because we aim to educate,” he added.
