Langkawi will soon have a fresh attraction to draw travellers – the Dream Forest Langkawi, an integrated tourist destination comprising Dream Forest Immersive Park and Dream Forest Book Village.
Built at a cost of around 20 million ringgit (US$4.5 million), the project is conceptualised and developed by Enfiniti Group and led by creative powerhouse Tiara Jacquelina.
The first phase of the project, Dream Forest Immersive Park, is set to open in May at the foot of Gunung Raya mountain. It will feature a multi-sensory, immersive evening walk through a 1.2km trail in Langkawi’s lush rainforest, where local stories and legends of the island come alive through soundscape, illuminations and projection mapping on the trees and the ground. Some spaces are also interactive.
During the day, visitors can take nature walks and at night, the forest transforms into a 6.39 hectare-wide natural theatrical space.
At a recent press conference, Tiara said the project was four years in the making.
“It started in 2019 as a very different project, designed to be experienced as separate stories told through various mediums of technology in individual pavilions,” she said.
“This was part of a plan to revitalise and reinvigorate the beautiful, former Kampung Buku of Langkawi. We even had plans for a spectacular nightly performance in an outdoor theatre.
“By 2020, it was very clear that the tourism industry and attractions like the one we were creating needed to adapt to a new normal in tandem with Industrial Revolution 4.0. The world was changing, the way people travelled and consumed entertainment was changing.”
Realising this, Enfiniti Group had to rethink the concept and how the visitor’s journey could be enhanced through the use of technology and automation, while being responsible and respectful to the natural forest landscape.
The second phase, Dream Forest Book Village, will house an events space, F&B and retail outlets as well as picnic spots. There will also be regularly curated cultural-based pocket performances of music, dance and poetry readings around the gardens or at the 120-seat amphitheatre.
