IPOH, July 27 — Gone are the days when Ipoh was simply a destination of tourists getting away for weekends and public holidays.
Now, the ebb and flow has developed into a steady stream of visitors to the Perak capital, keeping its tourism industry bustling virtually seven days a week.
At popular destinations such as the Funny Mountain Soya Beancurd store in Taman Jubilee, what were previously weekend-only crowds has turned into a regular occurrence, with customers queuing up outside daily to get their hands on the the soya bean, cincau, and beancurd.
Over at tourist hotspots such as Concubine Lane in the town centre, tour buses bringing visitors into the city arrive at such frequency that the Old Town is close to being overwhelmed even on weekdays.
The influx is also not just anecdotal, as data from the Perak arm of Malaysia Hoteliers Association showed that occupancy rates here were at least 50 per cent on Mondays through to Thursdays.
This would also jump up to between 75 per cent and 90 per cent on weekends and holidays, said Tony Wong, the chairman of the association.
“This is considered very good as even Kuala Lumpur cannot achieve 50 per cent during weekdays,” he told Malay Mail.
Occupants of the buildings in the Old Town, such as lawyer Tony Khoo whose office is based here, said the greater visitor numbers during weekdays was palpable, adding that there is now rarely a time when the area is quiet.
When the area would typically get congested only on weekends and public holidays before, he said it was now normal to see much larger crowds for longer stretches bookending the breaks.
“For instance if there is a public holiday in the week, you will see the area being jam packed with tourists for the entire week,” said Khoo.
Freelance heritage guide S. Sundralingam said most tourists would also start arriving on Thursdays, ahead of the weekend.
Sundralingam also said visitor numbers have grown to such an extent that he once had to wait two hours just to visit the Ho Yan Hor Museum at Jalan Bijeh Timah due to the crowd.
“Old Town is densely populated with tourists from Singapore on weekends as they would take the direct flight to Ipoh from the city state,” he said.
Concubine Lane costume jewellery seller, Pauline Hah, said there would be more tourists if there are events being held in the city.
“Participants of the events would drop by and visit the area after the events are completed,” she said.
The state government is currently running the Visit Perak Year 2024 campaign, in which it is targetting to have eight million visitors to the state across the year.
