THE Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts is targeting to add two more homestay clusters in Sarawak in collaboration with the federal Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC) Sarawak Office.
Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the goal is to develop ecotourism under the Tourism Sector Aspiration, as part of the Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030.
“We have 48 homestay clusters currently, with 596 homestay operators and 1,401 rooms, and my ministry is aiming to increase the list to 50 clusters.
“These homestay operators throughout Sarawak have welcomed 194,814 visitors and generated a revenue of RM23 million,” he said when delivering his ministerial winding-up speech in the State Legislative Assembly today.
A total of 440 homestay operators, tour guides and park guides underwent training in marketing strategies, service quality management and tourism product knowledge to enhance their homestay service quality, he said.
Additionally, Abdul Karim said, the Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus was assigned to undertake an action research on sustainable tourism development.
The research focused on community-based tourism (CBT) value-added programmes as a vehicle for social-economic enhancement.
“The objective of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the current homestay business and recommend value-added CBT framework.
“This is to further improve the operations of homestay businesses to be more competitive in Sarawak,” he added.
