Former Malaysian PM and international loud mouth, Mahathir Mohamad, is now involved in developing the Malaysian island of Langkawi. His history with the island goes back 50 years and he claims Langkawi can be as famous as Bali.
Mahathir Mohamad has a history of saying things in public that are deliberate attempts to rile opponents and win him brownie points with his supporters. According to him in 1950, Langkawi was unattractive, with only 1,000 visitors. Sorry, but you’ve got to start with more than that i you think you can challenge Bali as the best island in the world. Start with culture, arts, people and then move onto surfing, diving, mountains, temples and finish off with world class restaurants, spas, hotels and nightlife.
While Mahathir Mohamad’s plans seem far fetched, it should be a wake up call to the Bali tourist industry. If people in power in foreign countries put enough energy and money into developing and promoting new locations, they will start to take off. Some tourists will take a clean beach with no culture over a dirty beach with culture. We have a lot going for us in Bali, some of it can never be copied, its too unique. The other stuff needs to be continually kept up to speed, and security and safety are Job #1 right now.
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I totally agreed with anonymous
Yes, I support mahathir
Bali and Langkawi are two different islands with distinct history and cultural backgrounds. I’ve been to both islands and I fell in love with both Bali and Langkawi. But I believe Bali has the upper hand in being the prominent tourist mecca as it has a stronger and richer culture compared to Langkawi. Whereas Langkawi is more commercialized and is more of a business related destination. Both islands have their own specific charms and attractions which can’t be attained by both islands at the same time, so, in my honest opinion, competition between these two islands are not as great as one would expect and both attracts its own version of tourists. =)
What Mahathir said is true, time will tell that what he’s said or forecast always came true. In fact Langkawi island have all what it takes to attract tourist all over the world, furthermore the country itself-Malaysia, have the safety, security, political stability, compared to Bali’s who are tend to be the place for terrorist to show their violent act! Tourist will go to a destination like langkawi’s which is more SAFETY/SECURITY ……beautiful & clean island…