We will have eight hotels with more than 10,000 rooms when the latest one is completed. This plus another 4,000 more rooms in the staff quarters, will give us close to 15,000 rooms in Genting Highlands.

Genting Highlands is my labour of love. I have spared no efforts in striving for its perfection. We spent some RM600 million on a mammoth indoor and outdoor theme park as well as various entertainment facilities. These place Genting Highlands on par with many famous tourist resorts elswhere in the world.

As a tourist resort, Genting Highlands focuses not only on its casino operations. Our efforts are geared towards developing Genting Highlands into an entertainment city, a centre of attraction to the young and old. This concept has made Genting Highlands a popular tourist destination, one packed with visitors. In 1999 alone, more than 12 million tourists visited Genting Highlands.

Tourist arrivals continued to rise, particularly on weekends and public holidays. To ease traffic congestions, RWB took prompt actions in joining hands with the Government to build a new access road from Batang Kali. The road was completed in conjunction with the Government’s new move to promote tourism. The 17km new road was built for the convenience of tourists from the northern region and east coast of the peninsula.

RWB bore RM22.5 million of the total RM51.5 million construction costs. The road was opened to traffic on Aug 1, 1993 and it has since become a popular route for motorists going up to Genting Highlands.

Previously, tourists from the northern region and the east coast had to travel via Kuala Lumpur, Batu Caves and Karak Highway to Genting Highlands. The new access road from Batang Kali has shortened their journey by about 70km and travelling time by between two and three hours. We also widened the 10km stretch from the foot of the mountain to Gohtong Jaya into a four-lane carriageway. The project cost us RM120 million. With all these improvements, driving up to Genting Highlands nowadays is a breeze. The journey from the Gombak Toll Plaza to Gohtong Jaya can now be covered in 25 minutes.

LONGEST CABLE CAR

For a smoother and safer journey, we spent RM128 million on the construction of the Skyway cable car system from Gohtong Jaya to the hilltop. This is an additional means of transport. Now it just takes 12 minutes to cover the 3.8km distance to the hilltop in a cable car. The system, which was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Feb 21, 1997, can ferry up to 2,000 passengers per hour. It is the longest and fastest cable car system in South East Asia. The Genting Skyway cable car system also made its way to the inaugural issue of Malaysia’s Guinness Book of Records published on December 9, 1998.

PROSPEROUS TOWNSHIP

In 1993, Genting Development Sdn Bhd, a private company of mine, began to develop Gohtong Jaya on a 81-hectare piece of land at the seventh milestone of Jalan Genting Highlands. Gohtong Jaya was opened by the Sultan of Pahang on March 25, 1999. Gohtong Jaya is a township complete with apartments, shops, restaurants, hotels, educational institutions, a clubhouse and a police station. With its year-round mild weather, it is an ideal place to live or holiday in. It is only about 45 minutes' drive from Kuala Lumpur.

I have plans to add other facilities such as schools and a medical centre in Gohtong Jaya in its next phase of development. Being a commercial-cum-residential area, Gohtong Jaya will eventually become a prosperous township as suggested by its name in Bahasa Malaysia.

GOING HI-TECH

Genting Group is by no means limited to the leisure and tourism business. The company, in fact, began to diversify as early as the late 1970s. With leisure and tourism as its core business, the company also ventured into the plantation, property development, paper manufacturing, power generation, oil and gas exploration, and cruise businesses. In our pursuit of technology enhancement and business advancement into the 21st Century, E-Genting Holdings Sdn Bhd was incorporated in 1999 with the vision to be an Information Technology leader in the use and adoption of
new technology in e-commerce and e-engineering.