MELAKA, May 3 — Tourist spots in Melaka continue to be the destination of choice for foreign and domestic visitors to spend their public holiday in conjunction with the Aidilfitri celebration.

A check around Banda Hilir, here, found that several tourist hotspots in the area recorded an overwhelming number of visitors.

Trishaw rider Shazzuan Abdullah, 33, from Kampung Limbongan said this has given a ray of hope to tourism industry players like him who depend entirely on making a daily wage from ferrying tourists.

He said after the country entered the transition to endemic phase and the re-opening of international borders on April 1, he had even received customers from abroad such as Japan and England.

"After performing the Aidilfitri prayers yesterday, I went straight to the Bandar Hilir area because demand for trishaw services is usually higher during the festive season.

"It is a big opportunity for trishaw riders to earn extra income. Yesterday alone, I managed to get more than 10 customers,” he said here today.

R Sinadurai, 47, from Bukit Mertajam, Penang, said he decided to travel to Melaka with his family because the state has many interesting places to visit.

"We haven’t been here for quite a long time so we took the opportunity of the long holiday to come from Penang and spend two days here,” he said.

For Mira Rashid, 32, Melaka has always been one of her favourite places to visit.

"Apart from the various tourist attractions here, the colourfully decorated trishaws in Melaka are something that we don’t simply get in other places,” she said.

Previously, the media reported that the Melaka police expected a 50 per cent increase from the average of 45,000 vehicles entering the state at three toll plazas ahead of the Aidilfitri celebration.

Monitoring of the traffic flow at entry points to the state also indicated a spike on April 1 involving 45,203 vehicles compared to 31,145 vehicles on March 31. — Bernama