MELAKA: The historic city’s iconic Oceanarium will reopen its doors today after a year of closure following the Covid-19 pandemic that almost caused the popular attraction to shut down for good.

       The Shore Oceanarium CEO, Datuk Chew Chert Fong, said he was optimistic that the site will see an influx of domestic tourists.

       “The reopening is the first step to promote the attraction to locals.

       “We should be able to continue operations from now,” he said in an interview.

       The attraction faced a grim future a few months ago as care for its animal was costly – to the extent that the management had planned to auction RM1mil worth of collections in June this year.

       Oceanarium was opened in December 2014 but following the pandemic, the tourist site had not been able to cope with losses that accumulated to RM4mil from March last year.

       The closure had also impacted the creatures at the aquarium that had to acclimatise to having no visitors during the period.

       The management had to ensure physical engagement with the aquatic animals by having workers turn up daily at the Oceanarium.

       Melaka witnessed an increase in the number of domestic tourists after two days of transitioning to Phase Three of the National Recovery Plan on Oct 1.