KOTA TINGGI (April 29): The Johor government will corporatise Johor Tourism this year in an effort to empower the agency, said Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi.

He said the process towards this direction will be done within six months, and is expected to be completed at year end.

“With this, we will have the opportunity to hire employees possessing a strong tourism background, so that they can help to improve marketing and tourism products.

"This is important, because Johor Tourism is an agency which leads tourism efforts in the state. Corporatisation is not a new thing, because other states such as Penang and Selangor have implemented such initiatives," he said at a press conference after officiating the closing ceremony of a Johor tourism empowerment workshop here on Monday.

Also present were Johor Unity, Heritage and Culture Committee chairman K Raven Kumar and Johor Tourism director Sharil Nizam Abdul Rahim.

Meanwhile, Onn Hafiz said the move to corporatise the agency were earlier raised to him by Regent of Johor Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim.

"The regent of Johor wanted to know when we would corporatise Johor Tourism. Insya-Allah, we will do it this year, so that the quality of this agency can be improved," he said.

Meanwhile, Sharil Nizam said the move to corporatise Tourism Johor will help further expand the agency's management scope.

“Corporatisation for Johor Tourism is actually very good. In terms of the way to work and implementation of management, it will be bigger and better. Additionally, it will also be easy for us to collaborate with private, foreign and national parties," he said.

Earlier, Onn Hafiz said the empowerment workshop held on Monday gave the state government an opportunity to engage with tourism industry players in conjunction with preparations for the Visit Johor Year 2026.