TRAVEL Tit bits Hat Yai, the hub of Songkhla Province, will spend 200 million baht to jazz up its appeal by adding a cable
car, planetarium and art gallery to the list of attractions already available at the city’s main public park. Mayor Prai Pattano plans to broaden the park’s appeal from a place of leisure to include edutainment to pull in visitors from neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, who regularly travel every year to pay their respects to a shrine of Chinese goddess Guan Yin and a Buddha statue atop a hill with thick forest cover in the 900-rai park that also boasts a huge lake. “We want to develop the park into a complete tourism complex,” he said. The cable car, expected to cost 100 million baht and take a year to build, will greatly shorten travel time to the iconic statues that draw visitors all year round. Around 40 million baht will be needed to build a planetarium and equip it with powerful telescopes so visitors, especially children, can take a peek at the universe. It will take two years to complete.
Next on his agenda is building a permanent art gallery and renovation of the area that now plays host to the weekend market, improving walkways and the aviary in the park.