Article: Scrap tiger park, focus on heritage and culture

Monday March 23, 2009

I REFER to “Scrap tiger park, work on heritage status”(The Star, March 18) and “Rethink plan to build tiger park, Penang urged” (The Star, March 17).

I agree that building a tiger park in Penang is not wise. Instead, the Penang government should focus on the state’s key areas such as heritage, food, and culture.

Furthermore, Penang has no experience in managing a tiger park. The idea of setting up this tiger park is like we have world-famous char koay teow but we now want to market lontong in Penang.

The money going to be used to build the park should instead be used to upgrade state facilities to enhance the tourism industry, besides upgrading the public transportation service.

For instance, the state goverment should resolve the shortage of parking space in the heritage enclave area and upgrade the amenities such as public toilets and hawker complexes.

Moreover, the state authorities must work to improve public transport services, such as upgrading bus stations, introducing more bus routes and refurnishing Komtar bus terminal.

Let’s focus on our available tourism products and improve them. New is not necessarily good, old is gold.

LEE SIU MING,
Penang.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: News: Opinion 23 March 2009