Johor Premium Outlets a successful tourists shopping attraction

By Anthony Tan email: micemalaysiabeyond@gmail.com

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen made a working visit recently to the Johor Premium Outlets (JPO) as part of her three days Johor tourism update programme.

JPO is a 50:50 joint venture between Genting Simon, a subsidiary of Genting Berhad, and the largest real estate company in the US, Simon Property Group, with its head office in Indianapolis, Indiana.

(Picture Left) Ng signing the visitors book at the Tourism Malaysia Information Office

JPO is the first premium outlet in Southeast Asia, a concept of a collection upscale shopping outlets highlighting international designers and leading brands offering past one or two seasons and overruns branded items. Shoppers to these outlets enjoys attractive savings of 25% to 65% on the price tag from brands like Adidas, Armani, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Canali, Coach, Esprit, Ermenegildo Zegna, Gap, Guess, Lacoste, Michael Kors, Nike, Oroton, Ralph Lauren, Salvatore Ferragamo, Swiss Watch Gallery, Timberland, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Tumi and including local brands like Royal Selangor.

Ng was briefed on JPO operations and updates by Genting Simon Sdn Bhd assistant manager –

marketing, Justin Cheah who was on hand to

show her around the 80 outlets including the food court serving a wide spread of cuisine.



She was told that JPO has surpassed its expectations of the forecasted visitors and there are also plans to open two new premium outlets in Malacca and Sepang.

"JPO has managed to attract more than one million visitors since it opened in December, with 80% of them being domestic tourists," as Ng spoke at the press conference after touring the outlets.

Ng (fourth from right) with Tourism Malaysia Director General Dato Azizan (third from right) and Tourism Ministry Secretary General Dato Ong (fifth from right) together with senior officers from Tourism Malaysia with the message "JUST DO IT"

She further gave some suggestions to the management on how JPO could work with her ministry in international promotions at the various travelmarts and tourism conferences which Tourism Malaysia participate annually in order to attract more tourists to shop here.

She added “In 2011, 30% of tourism expenditure was channelled to shopping, an increase of 3% from the previous year. We expect this number to continue to increase and we target expenditure for shopping to grow up to 38% by the year 2020.”

Ng said “The opening of more Premium Outlets in the country would contribute to the economy of the country as well as attract more tourists to do their shopping here.”

To encourage tourists to spend more, Ng said some of the initiatives taken by her ministry had requested the government to make duty free another 300 popular items that tourists sort after in their shopping list.

The retailers must play their part by increasing their stocks with more variety of branded items, control the pricing of goods and offer special discounts to be competitive in order to attract more tourists to shop in Malaysia.