SERIAN: Kuching is poised to become a pilgrimage hub for umrah in the first quarter of 2020.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the initiative to make Kuching an umrah hub will materialise tomorrow (Dec 30).
“We will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) next week (Dec 30),” Karim told the press when met at Serian Durian Ride 2019 here at Tasik Danu yesterday.
Karim added that a new flight route from Kuching to Haikou, Hainan, China would also be materialised on the same day as the umrah MOU signing ceremony.
“By the end of this year, we will be having direct flights from Kuching to Haikou after the state government has signed the MOU on Monday (tomorrow),” he said.
“The next one will be Jakarta-Kuching, which will involve new airlines and flight routes to Kuching,” he added.
Touching on the state’s tourism, he noted that Sarawak would not be able to achieve the target of 5 million tourist arrivals with only three days away from the new year.
“Last year, we recorded about 4.3 million tourist arrivals and to date, the number has increased slightly for this year with more arrivals coming from Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, China etc.
“We will continue with the same target of 5 million tourist arrivals next year,” he said.
