Genting Highlands

Genting Highlands is a hill station located on the peak of Mount Ulu Kali in Malaysia at 1,800 meters elevation. A large portion of the area is located in the state of Pahang, and another small portion is located in the state of Selangor. It was established by the late Chinese businessman, Lim Goh Tong in 1965. The primary tourist attraction is Resorts World Genting, a hill resort where casinos and theme parks are situated, and gambling is allowed.

Genting Highlands
Hill station
Other transcription(s)
 • MalayTanah Tinggi Genting (Rumi)
تانه تيڠڬي ݢنتيڠ‎ (Jawi)
 • Chinese云顶高原 (Simplified)
雲頂高原 (Traditional)
 • Tamilகெந்திங் மலை
Genting Highlands
Location of Genting Highlands in Peninsular Malaysia
Genting Highlands
Location of Genting Highlands in Malaysia
Coordinates: 3°25′25″N 101°47′36″E
Country Malaysia
State Pahang and  Selangor
DistrictBentong and Hulu Selangor
Establishment1965
Elevation
1,865 m (6,118 ft)
Time zoneUTC+8 (MST)
 • Summer (DST)Not observed
Postcode
44300, 48200 and 69000

History
Gohtong Jaya township.

The idea to build a hill resort near capital city Kuala Lumpur came from a late Malaysian Chinese businessman, Lim Goh Tong who was inspired by the fresh air in Cameron Highlands during his business trip there in 1963 for a hydroelectric power project. The rationale was that Cameron Highlands was too far away from Kuala Lumpur and therefore building a mountain resort nearer to Kuala Lumpur would have great business potential. After researching Kuala Lumpur's maps and surrounding areas, Lim identified Mount Ulu Kali in Genting Sempah which is just 58 km from Kuala Lumpur to be an ideal location for his plan. He set up a private company called Genting Highlands Berhad (now Genting Group) on 27 April 1965 with the late politician Mohamad Noah Omar and successfully obtained approval for the alienation of 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) and 2,800 acres (1,100 ha) of land from the Pahang and Selangor State Government respectively between 1965 and 1970.

On 18 August 1965, a technical and construction team began to construct the access road from Genting Sempah to the peak of Mount Ulu Kali and on 31 March 1969, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister, laid the foundation stone for the company's pioneer hotel, marking the completion of the access road to Genting Highlands Resort. The resort was also granted the casino license the same year by the Malaysian government to develop its own gambling industry. The piece of land within the hill station below the resort was developed into the Gohtong Jaya township. In 1971, the first hotel at Genting Highlands was completed and was named Highlands Hotel (now renamed as Theme Park Hotel).

Since then, Genting Highlands Resort has expanded with six more hotels being built within 2017. They are Genting Hotel (renamed as Genting Grand, 1981), Awana (1984), Resort Hotel (1992), Highlands Hotel (1997), First World Hotel (2001) and Crockfords (2017). Two cable car systems were built to provide transport to the hilltop: Awana Skyway built in 1977 with a length of 2.8 kilometres (1.7 mi) and Genting Skyway cable car system built in 1997 with a length of 3.38 kilometres (2.10 mi). The resort began to involve in amusement park and entertainment industry with the launching of Indoor theme park in 1992, Outdoor theme park in 1994 and Arena of Stars in 1998.[1]

In 2013, Genting Group implemented a 10-year master plan named Genting Integrated Tourism Plan (GITP) to develop, expand, enhance and refurbish hotels, theme parks and infrastructure at Genting Highlands. The plan with different phases involves a new 1,300 rooms hotel expansion to the current First World Hotel, a new 10,000 seats arena and reconverting the Genting Outdoor Theme Park to 20th Century Fox World. A dispute with 20th Century Fox which was purchased by The Walt Disney Company resulted in the theme park being rebranded as Genting SkyWorlds.[2] In 2019, the refurbishment of the infrastructure at the resort have been completed, with only the outdoor theme park that is left renovating and is expected to be completed in early 2021.

Township

Gohtong Jaya (Chinese: 梧桐再也) is a service township of Genting Highlands named after Lim Goh Tong, the founder of Genting Group and Genting Highlands himself. It has several facilities such as hotels (including one Hotel Seri Malaysia branch), restaurants, shops, apartments, housing areas, a sports centre, one Institut Aminuddin Baki branch,[3] three schools - Sri Layang National Primary School, Sri Layang National Secondary School and Highlands International Boarding School (Saleha Private High School) and two lower stations for the two cable car systems which both ascend to the top of Genting Highlands - the Awana Skyway at the Pahang side and Genting Skyway at the Selangor side.[4][5][6]

Climate

Genting Highlands has a spring-like subtropical highland climate (Cfb), with yearly temperatures no higher than 25 °C (77 °F) and rarely falling below 10 °C (50 °F) yearly. The lowest temperature recorded at Genting Highlands is 8.4 °C (47.1 °F). The temperature during the day typically reaches around 22 °C (72 °F) and during the night, it usually drops to 12 °C (54 °F).

Climate data for Genting Highlands
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 20.3
(68.5)		 21.1
(70.0)		 22.0
(71.6)		 22.3
(72.1)		 22.3
(72.1)		 22.1
(71.8)		 21.7
(71.1)		 21.5
(70.7)		 21.4
(70.5)		 21.2
(70.2)		 21.0
(69.8)		 20.5
(68.9)		 21.5
(70.6)
Daily mean °C (°F) 16.0
(60.8)		 16.5
(61.7)		 17.1
(62.8)		 17.7
(63.9)		 17.8
(64.0)		 17.6
(63.7)		 17.1
(62.8)		 17.0
(62.6)		 17.0
(62.6)		 17.0
(62.6)		 16.9
(62.4)		 16.4
(61.5)		 17.0
(62.6)
Average low °C (°F) 11.8
(53.2)		 12.0
(53.6)		 12.3
(54.1)		 13.1
(55.6)		 13.3
(55.9)		 13.1
(55.6)		 12.5
(54.5)		 12.6
(54.7)		 12.7
(54.9)		 12.9
(55.2)		 12.8
(55.0)		 12.3
(54.1)		 12.6
(54.7)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 250
(9.8)		 165
(6.5)		 232
(9.1)		 259
(10.2)		 203
(8.0)		 112
(4.4)		 103
(4.1)		 120
(4.7)		 173
(6.8)		 258
(10.2)		 310
(12.2)		 278
(10.9)		 2,463
(96.9)
Source: Climate data.org

Attractions

Resorts World Genting
Resorts World Genting
Address Resorts World Genting, 69000 Genting Highlands, Bentong, Pahang, Malaysia
Opening date27 April 1965 (1965-04-27)
No. of rooms10466 (7 hotels)
Total gaming spaceOver 200,000 sq ft (19,000 m2)
Signature attractionsFirst World Plaza
SkyAvenue
Genting Premium Outlets
Notable restaurantsThe Laughing Fish by Harry Ramsden
Burger & Lobster
Cafés Richard
Coffee Terrace
La Fiesta
e18hteen
LTITUDE
Malaysian Food Street
Motorino
The Olive
OwnerGenting Group
(Genting Malaysia Berhad)
Renovated inGenting Integrated Tourism Plan (2013–present)
Websitewww.rwgenting.com

Resorts World Genting (Abbreviation: RWG), originally known as Genting Highlands Resort is an integrated hill resort owned by Genting Group through subsidiary Genting Malaysia Berhad which comprising hotels, shopping malls, theme parks and casinos. It is the main attraction of the hill station, located within the Pahang section of the area.

Accommodations
First World Hotel.
Genting Grand.
Chin Swee Caves Temple.
Tan Sri (Dr) Lim Goh Tong Memorial Hall in Gohtong Jaya.

Resorts World Genting has seven hotels with one of them being a leisure resort. One of the seven accommodations, First World Hotel, held the Guinness World Record as the largest hotel in the world from 2006 until 2008 and regained the title in 2015 with a total of 7,351 rooms following the completion of Tower 3. In 2018, Forbes Travel Guide Star Ratings awarded 4-star rating and 'recommended' citation to Genting Grand and Maxims respectively.[7]

Crockfords at Resorts World Genting was awarded the 5-star rating in 2019 & 2020, making it the first and only hotel in Malaysia to achieve this award.[8]

Hotel name Launch date Description Star rating No. of rooms Ref
Theme Park Hotel 1971 (Reopened in 2017) Formerly known as Hotel on the Park, it is the first hotel to open in Genting Highlands and sits opposite the outdoor theme park. Hotel Valley Wings is connected via a walk bridge. 3-star 448 [9]
Genting Grand Hotel 1981 It was known as Genting Hotel, and then later, Maxims before Highlands Hotel took the name. The building is known for the huge "Genting" logo on its rooftop, which can be seen from as far as Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya (over 70 km away) on a clear day. It was made in a "Y" shape. It houses the Genting Casino as well as Genting Grand Complex. 5-star 422 [10]
Awana 1984 Situated approximately 4 km before reaching Resorts World Genting, Awana is a resort hotel with a golf course, swimming pool and other sports facilities. 5-star 413 [11]
Resort Hotel 1992 The hotel is a long white tower that faces the Theme Park Hotel and is the main entrance to the 20th Century Fox World. One of the entry points to Genting Casino. 3-star 900 [12]
Highlands Hotel 1997 Initially opened as Highlands Hotel, the hotel was refurbished into Maxims in 2015 but reverted to its original name in September 2020. It houses the upper station of Genting Skyway. 5-star 795 [13]
First World Hotel Tower 1 (2001), Tower 2 (2006), Tower 3 (2014) First World Hotel, with its two very noticeable brightly coloured towers, was the largest hotel in the world until 2008, but it regained the title in 2015 with the completion of Tower 3. 3-star 7,351 [14]
Crockfords 2017 Initially occupying Maxims' upper floors, it was relocated to Sky Avenue's upper floors next to Sky Casino & First World Hotel. Opened on 27 Nov 2017, the hotel was awarded Forbes Travel Guide 5-Star Hotel in Malaysia for 2019 & 2020, being the only hotel in Malaysia to receive the accreditation. 5-star 138 [15]

Theme parks

There are two theme parks at Resort World Genting: Outdoor Theme Park and Skytropolis Funland Indoor Theme Park. Genting Outdoor Theme Park was opened in 1994 with several rides including a monorail service. It was temporarily closed on 1 September 2013 to make way for the construction of world's first 20th Century Fox World.[16] However, due to disputes between Genting Malaysia Berhad, Fox Entertainment Group and The Walt Disney Company over the theme park after the purchase of 20th Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company,[17] Disney and Fox on the 26th July 2019 granted Genting Malaysia Berhad, through an agreement, a license to use certain Fox intellectual properties and the theme park was eventually rebranded as Genting SkyWorlds.[18] The outdoor theme park is expected to be opened in the first quarter of 2021 after completion target was delayed from 2016 to 2018.[19]

Skytropolis Funland Indoor Theme Park, formerly Genting Indoor Theme Park and First World Plaza Indoor Theme Park, was opened in 1992. It was closed from June 2017 to February 2018 for refurbishment. On 8 December 2018, it was opened to the public with selected rides from the former outdoor and indoor theme parks. The theme park also included the first Asian branch of VOID, a US-based operator of unique fully immersive virtual reality attraction which officially opened on 6 December 2018 on a plot of land nearly 7,000 sq ft (650 m2) wide in the theme park.[20]

Casino

Resorts World Genting is the only legal land-based casino area in the country. There are two main casino outlets in the resort, which are Genting Casino and SkyCasino.

Shopping malls

There are currently four shopping malls at the resort. They are: Awana Sky Central,[21] First World Plaza,[22] Genting Highlands Premium Outlets,[23] and Sky Avenue. [24] Two of the shopping malls: Awana SkyCentral and Genting Highlands Premium Outlet are connected by two link bridges. One shopping mall Genting Highlands Premium Outlet currently holds Southeast Asia’s second Premium Outlet Centre and the world’s first hilltop Premium Outlet Centre.

Amenities

The resort has two performance venues and a cineplex.

  • Arena of Stars is a concert hall with a capacity of 5,132 seats.
  • Genting International Showroom is a multimedia entertainment venue with up to 1,000 seating capacity.
  • Bona Cinemas at SkyAvenue is their first cineplex outside China and consists of 6 cinema halls equipped with Dolby Atmos sound systems and IMAX theatre systems.[25]

Events

Resorts World Genting has hosted several events over the years such as awards ceremonies, concerts and competitions which are:

Other attractions

Other tourist attractions at Genting Highlands are Chin Swee Caves Temple - the sole Buddhist temple named after Ancient Chinese monk Qingshui,[26] Mohamed Noah Foundation Mosque - the sole mosque named after late politician and co-founder of Genting Group Mohamed Noah Omar, Gohtong Memorial Park - memorial and cemetery of the late founder Lim Goh Tong,[27] two agricultural centres Mini Cameron Highlands and Genting Strawberry Leisure Farms and sole apiary and entomological farm - Happy Bee Farm.[28][29][30]

Government and politics

At the federal level, Genting Highlands is part of the Bentong parliamentary constituency in Pahang, currently represented by environmental activist Wong Tack on a DAP ticket and the Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency in Selangor, currently represented by June Leow on a PKR ticket.

On the state level, Genting Highlands falls under the Ketari constituency of the Pahang State Legislative Assembly, currently held by Young Syefura Othman of the DAP and the Batang Kali constituency of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly, currently held by Harumaini Omar of PEJUANG.

Genting Highlands falls within the municipal boundary of the Bentong Municipal Council (Majlis Perbandaran Bentong) and the district boundary of Hulu Selangor District Council (Majlis Daerah Hulu Selangor). Since 2020, Genting Highlands is also an autonomous sub-district (daerah kecil) within Bentong District.[31][32]

References
  1. History
  2. "RM5b to transform Resorts World Genting". thesundaily.my. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  3. "Institut Aminuddin Baki Genting Highlands".
  4. "Highlands International Boarding School".
  5. "'Govt ready to partner with private sector' says PM Dahal". The Himalayan Times. 16 December 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  6. "Gohtong Jaya".
  7. "Resorts World Genting gains two accolades in the 2018 Forbes Travel Guide Star Ratings". businessinsider.com. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  8. "Crockfords Hotel awarded Malaysia's first 5-star Forbes Travel Guide rating". nst.com.my. 23 February 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  9. Theme Park Hotel
  10. Genting Grand Hotel
  11. Resorts World Awana official website
  12. Resort Hotel
  13. Highlands Hotel
  14. First World Hotel
  15. Crockfords
  16. "Twentieth Century Fox theme park announced". edition.cnn.com. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  17. "Disney, Fox sued Genting in the United States for $1 billion". reuters.com. 27 November 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  18. "Genting Malaysia settles with Disney and Fox over outdoor theme park". The Edge Markets. 25 July 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  19. "Genting M'sia says outdoor theme park opening date still up in the air". theedgemarkets.com. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  20. "Asia's first hyper-reality experience centre opens in Genting". malaymail.com. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  21. Awana Sky Central
  22. First World Plaza
  23. Genting Highlands Premium Outlets
  24. Sky Avenue
  25. "China's Bona Film Group opens first overseas cineplex in Malaysia". channelnewsasia.com. 25 February 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  26. Chin Swee Temple official website
  27. Gohtong Memorial Park
  28. Mini Cameron Highlands
  29. Strawberry Farm
  30. Happy Bee Farm
  31. "Cukai tanah untuk industri turun". Harian Metro. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  32. "Pahang bentang belanjawan lebihan kali ke-17". Malaysia Dateline. Retrieved 28 October 2020.

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