Sarawak has received 3.72 million visitors from January to September this year and generated estimated tourism receipts of RM6.9 billion.
Tourism is expected to generate receipt of RM8.98 billion and contributing about 8.2% towards the State GDP until the end of 2017. The State is targeting 5.25 million visitors with estimated receipts of RM9.82 billion for next year. The top ten visitors into Sarawak are Brunei, Indonesia, The Philippines, Singapore, China, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Thailand and Europe.
The State Government , acknowledging the importance of tourism, as the driver and catalyst to accelerate growth of the economy, has approved 14 programmes and projects worth RM51 million early this year.
The projects and programmes comprise upgrading of tourism infrastructure and facilities at Wind Cave, Fairy Cave, Kuching Waterfront and Kuching Heritage Trail, upgrading of Jetty near Santubong Bridge, the conversion of Brooke Dockyard into Maritime museum and the construction of Walkway in front of the new DUN building.
The other projects are the conversion of Old DUN building into performing arts center, construction of Gold Mine Museum and Park in Bau and the conversion of the Old Resident Office in Miri into a Cultural and Heritage Centre.
The new projects to be funded by the State with a total allocation of RM26.5 million comprise of Dalat Waterfront, Kampung Boyan to Fort Margherita Walkway in Kuching, upgrading of North Yu Seng Road or Wireless Walk in Miri, development of tourism facilities at Bakam Points, the Upgrading of ICQS at Sungai Tujuh and Tourism related facilities at Tusan Beach and Peliau Bekenu.
Those to be funded by the Federal Ministry of Tourism and Culture, with an allocation of RM28.12 million, comprise the construction of Walkway and Jetty at Kuching Wetland (RAMSAR Site), construction of Baram Waterfront, upgrading of facilities at Panchor Hot Spring in Serian.
The Minister of Tour ism, Heritage, Culture, Youth and Sports, Datuk Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, in rewinding the debate on Budget 2018 in the recent sitting of the State Legi s lat ive As sembly, sai d National Parks continue to be the most preferred destinations for Eco tourists both domestic and foreign because of diverse biodiversity, beautiful and unique landscape and wildlife varieties.
As of September 2017, they recorded 462,361 visitors where 102,051 were foreigners and 360,310, locals. Semenggoh Wildlife Centre was the first National Park to be given the recognition under Malaysia Tourism Quality Assurance (MYTQA) under the nature and Adventure Category. The recognition is valid for a period of 3 years from 2017 to 2020.
Karim said Lambir Hill National Park, Miri has been awarded the certificate of excellence 2017 by Trip advisor based on opinions of tourists on the quality of service and other aspects of Lambir Hills National Park. He said Sarawak is leveraging on its membership in several regional platforms namely Sabah Sarawak Labuan Joint Tourism Co-ordinat ion Commi t tee, Sarawak Brunei Tourism Working Group, BIMP-EAGA and East Asia Tourism Forum (EATOF) to develop joint activities, marketing and promotion of tour packages.
Under the BIMP EAGA platform, Sarawak participated in the BUDAYAW Cultural Festival in General Santos, Mindanao in September, 2017 and the 3rd Air Linkages Summit in Kota Kinabalu in November 2017. He said Korean and Chinese tourists are coming into Miri from Brunei under joint packages of Sarawak/ Brunei Tourism Working groups.
Early this year Sarawak sent a cultural troupe to Pyeongchang, Gangwon to support during the launch of Winter Olympic, which will be held in February 2018. Sarawak will send a strong team of 20 performers, upon request of the host country, to perform at the opening at numerous venues during the Winter Olympic in 2018. Karim said the activities of Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) for 2018 will be championed by Sales and Marketing and backed by activities of Tourism Development. The long – term aims are to create a sustainable Business Events sector while continuing to pursue for more bids, substantial bids in particular.
The SCB looks forward for a higher conversion of leads, which will be enhanced through digital technologies such as web-based bids and multimedia bid books. The Marketing will continue to position Sarawak as a leading Business Events destination in the world with a bold award-winning marketing campaign. Karim believed this will be enhanced through ramification; an integration of technology and personal touch.
SCB will seek to drive service excellence and consistency, which is imperative amongst sector partners, in areas of tourism Development. SCB hopes to enhance the sector through education and training events. Other activities will move into gathering stronger intelligence from a wider range of sources, capitalising data to win business.
Karim said the introduction of Tourism Tax Act, which took effect on the 1st of September, has created a drawback towards the industry as the destination gets less competitive, as compared to other emerging destinations in the region.
Sarawak Tourism Board, in reacting towards this, has increased marketing activities in order to remain relevant especially in capitalizing on digital marketing platform. He said a major migration of all marketing collaterals and information into the digital platform has made information more accessible to the people in the process of decision making.
In this connection, Sarawak Tourism Board has upgraded four (4) of its major websites to become more user friendly. Sarawak Tourism Board has also subscribed Baidu search engine in China, which is equivalent to Google, to provide greater Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) on Sarawak for the Greater China market.
Besides, the Board continues to invest in Trip Advisor, Expedia and Travel Port as a platform to reach out to broader English speaking market. Visual promotions have been uploaded into YouTube for longer retention memory on Sarawak’s attractions and destinations.
The Minister said the Board’s major websites have commanded 648,697 followers while the Face book has increased at 3% in total fans, which recorded 137,500 fans. Consumer directed promotion is aimed at providing a platform for travel trade partners to reach out directly to consumers selling their Sarawak packages.
Sarawak Tourism Board participated in eight major consumer fairs locally and abroad. Among them the ever popular Malaysia Association of Travel Trade Agents (MATTA) Fairs and Sarawak Inbound Travel Association (MITA) Fair, both held in Kuala Lumpur, Brunei Travel Fai r in Bandar Ser i Begawan, Flight Centre Expo in Sydney and Melbourne, ASTINDO fair in Jakarta, the Australasia Birding Fair in Sydney and the International Travel Fair in Taipei, Taiwan.
The board also participated in nine major international trade fairs including World Travel Market in London, International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin, ITB Asia in Singapore, Travel Industry Expo in Sydney and Melbourne, Nordic Travel Mart (MATKA), ASEAN Tourism Forum in Singapore, ROUTES Asia in Okinawa and Tunas Tunggal Cemerlang (TTC) in Jakarta. He said the collaboration programs with both local tourism agencies, agents, product owners, hotels and tourism related bodies help to boost the State’s presence in selected market and strategic partnership. Sarawak, during the recent MATTA Fair in Kuala Lumpur, took the opportunity to portray itself as Malaysia’s Favorite Destination.
This initiative was supported by Sarawak Chapter of MATTA and Malaysia Association of Hotels (MAH) by offering competitive Sarawak tour packages. He said Sarawak Tourism Board has been tasked to facilitate and support any airlines that show interest to fly into Sarawak. Air Asia will fly Shenzhen-Kuching- Shenzhen daily with the inaugural flight scheduled on the 27th December 2017. Air Asia will also be increasing the flight between Kuching and Singapore from the 26th December from 9 daily to sixteen daily. Scoot Airlines, which has launched its inaugural flight, will fly daily between Singapore and Kuching.
Karim said Sarawak Museum, which is the manifestation of the State’s heritage, is interconnected with tourism to reflect the iconic image of the country and its people. The economic contribution of heritage resources is one of the major means to achieve sustainable tourism development.
Sarawak Museum Campus Project, the new Main Exhibition Building and Conservation of old Sarawak Museum, is targeted to be completed by end of 2019. It will become the reposition Sarawak Museum as the manifestation of Sarawak’s culture, heritage and tourism. He said the stage two of the project will the conservation of the old Sarawak Museum, now 126 years old.
It was built in 1891. This historic and iconic building is in urgent need for conservation and upgrading works. Five forts, namely Fort Lily in Betong; Fort Emma in Kanowit; Fort Hose in Marudi; Fort Brooke in Julau and Fort Sylvia in Kapit, which are reminiscence of historical past, will be upgraded and given new roles as historic and visitor attractions under the rolling plan of the 11th Malaysia Plan. Karim said the development of Sarawak Museum Campus, which is based on the requirements of international museum standards, will put Sarawak Museum at par with other renowned museums in the world. Collaborations with museums such as the British Museum and Natural History Museum, London and academic institution such as Reinwardt Academy in the Netherlands have strengthened the position of Sarawak Museum as a centre of museum excellence in this region.
The collaborations have resulted in the donation of 412 units of Borneon cultural artifacts together with 14 shelving units, nine thermo hydrographs and 44 chests by Museum Prinsenhof Delft, Leiden, the Netherlands. Karim said a transfer agreement was signed between Sarawak Museum and Museum Prinsenhof Delft on 19th June 2017 and 4th July 2017 respectively.
The artifacts are expected to arrive in Sarawak in December 2017. The artifacts will provide good addition to the existing collection and further enhance recognition of Sarawak Museum nationally and internationally.
He said the handicraft Industry, which involves more than 1.35 million producers, is worth more than USD100 billion globally. The global growth forecast for the period 2015 to 2019 will be 12% annually with handicrafts continuing to be popular cultural souvenirs. In Sarawak, the total sales of 957 producers as at 31st October 2017 was worth RM22 million.
The most popular products are beads work, textile (pua kumbu) and forest – based products, like bakul and mat. The development of handicraft industry is being spearheaded by Sarawak Craft Council (SCC) Karim said Sarawak, through Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB has been able to position itself as one of the second tier destinations for Business Events in this region).
It brought in 73 Business Events, which represented close to 25, 000 delegates and 73,000 delegate days, translating to approximately RM 81.7 million in direct delegate expenditure in Sarawak from January to October 2017 Some of the highlights of the events won in 2017 are the World Autism Congress, which will be held in 2022 with an estimated of 1500 delegates; 10th Clean Air Asia Better Air Quality Conference 2018 with estimated 600 Delegates; Alliance for Healthy Cities Global Conference 2018 with estimated 600 Delegates; and Annual Scientific Conference of Malaysian Ontological Society 2017 with estimated 650 Delegates; The other event s wi l l be International Energy Week 2018 with estimated 500 Delegates; Congress of the Federation of Asian Veterinary Association 2020 with estimated 800 Delegates and International Biomass Conference Malaysia 2017 with estimated 500 Delegates He said the State played hosts to 47 conventions, with over 20 thousand delegates and bringing in an estimated direct delegates’ spending of over RM 67.7 million to Sarawak in 2017.
Some notable Business Events during the year were International Summit on Peace with over 600 participants; Second International Conference on Special Education and Access and Engagement with over 650 delegates. SCC organised and participated in 20 promotional and sales events, involving 147 participants generating direct sales worth RM419,000.00.
Twenty capacity building trainings on production skills, finishing skill, basic business skills and new product development skills were also organised. Sarawak Craft Council (SCC) plans to carry out several programmes and activities in 2018 to increase awareness and sales of handicraft products, Karim said. Among them will be handicraft bazaars throughout Sarawak with the first one being planned in Bau to be followed by Sri Aman, Mukah, Lawas, Kota Samarahan and Miri.
