Southern Malaysia’s Hello Kitty theme park is closing at the end of the year.
The Sanrio Hello Kitty Town theme park will officially shutter on Jan 1 after failing to attract sufficient visitor numbers for some time.
There is intense competition in the Johor Bahru area with several water and amusement parks including Legoland and the indoor MCM Studio theme park.
Hello Jitty first opened in 2012 at a cost of about US$26 million.
Head of the state tourism committee Liow Cai Tung doesn’t expect the closure to have a major impact on Johor tourism.
"I believe it will only have a small impact on the Visit Johor Year 2020 campaign and will not affect overall tourist arrivals," Liow said.
"Besides that, Johor is also promoting eco-tourism as well as nature-based tourism."
With the new developments taking shape on Johor’s Desaru Coast, the state is well known as Malasyia’s theme park capital.
