Johor Bahru - Will Johor Bahru turn into the Orlando of Southeast Asia?

Will Johor Bahru turn into the Orlando of Southeast Asia?
Luc Citrinot - 10 October 2012, 10:30

With all tourism developments taking place in Nusajaya, the entertainment complex near to Johor Bahru, Malaysia has now ambitions to turn the area into a new Orlando for Southeast Asia…

MANILA- For decades and decades, the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru with its 550,000 inhabitants- stood in the shadow of its mighty Southern neighbour Singapore. It had –and still in someways continues to have- a bad reputation, largely echoed by Singapore media: Johor Bahru is often described as a “cowboy town” with hordes of bad guys just waiting the right opportunity to rob Singaporeans from their valuables. The reality is quite different.

Although JB –as it is commonly referred in Malaysia- has its share of crimes, the city is not less safe than any other big metropolis in the region. At a press conference organized last year, the local police force admitted that they are on average 350 to 500 crimes per year in town (which implies 1 to 1.5 crime per day). However, they are over 15 million people visiting Johor Bahru every year, including some 14 million of Singaporeans…

Johor Bahru offers a lot to travellers keen to discover a city which is still highly influenced by its rulers, the Sultan of Johor Bahru. The Sultan’s palace, the old mosque or the museum testifies those days of the magnificence of the Sultan’s at the beginning of the 20th century.