KUCHING: Tourism, Arts and Culture Assistant Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting believes the prevailing haze does impact on inbound tourists in Sarawak but feels it is more a question of to what extent.
“For those who had already planned earlier on to come to Sarawak, I do not believe they would cancel their plans.
“Only those potential tourists who want to visit — they are likely to take this haze into consideration,” Ting told reporters after a ceremony to present cheques to representatives of state constituencies in the first phase of the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) fund distribution at Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Petra Jaya here, yesterday.
“However, as far as Miri is concerned, the haze has little effect on tourists from Brunei,” he said, citing statistics.
According to him, statistics obtained from Sungai Tujuh Immigration checkpoint in Kuala Baram shows the number of people visiting Miri from Brunei has not substantially reduced.
“The only challenging situation that we have in Miri is the long queuing time at the Sungai Tujuh Immigration checkpoint, especially during long holidays when tourists come down for the weekend,” he remarked.
Recently, Ting had made some suggestions to improve the clearance time for travellers at the checkpoint, such as operating more counters during peak hours.
