KUCHING: Sarawak is poised to become a umrah (haj pilgrimage) hub in the region this year.
“We want to establish Sarawak as a umrah hub as this will encourage more airlines to come in as well as enable our neighbour from Indonesia to use Kuching as the alternative gateway to Jeddah and Madinah,” said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
Abdul Karim pointed this out following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently, to turn Kuching into an alternative travelling hub for umrah, that had been well received.
“I notice the economy of the local population, especially Muslims, are quite high, as some would like to go to umrah every year,” he said at a press conference after welcoming visitors and tourists to Sarawak on the first day of the new year at Kuching International Airport (KIA), kicking off the Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM2020) Campaign on Wednesday.
As such, the initiative by Tourism Malaysia was held at 22 entry points throughout the country on Jan 1.
This year, the state’s target remains at five million tourist arrivals. Therefore, emphasis towards establishing connectivity to Sarawak is ongoing.
“But hopefully, we will be seeing quite a number of new connectivities within the first quarter of this year as we have secured some MoUs in the last few days and there will be some more coming up. You will be seeing new sectors coming in from China, including from Hainan and Haikou,” he added.
He disclosed that from January to November 2019, Sarawak recorded 4.17 million tourist arrivals and December saw a significant increase and he was optimistic that the state could achieve the 4.5 to 4.6 million mark.
Other efforts to encourage tourists to visit Sarawak included hosting more events including arts, music, conferences and sports as well as improving local tourism products.
“The Spartan race last year drew some 3,000 participants, including tourists and out of the number of participants, 65 per cent were foreigners.
“Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) and the ministry are working closely with councils and Resident and District Offices whereby, most of our tourism products are looked after by these agencies,” he said.
He hoped 2020 would be a good year for Sarawak and Malaysia in terms of tourism.
“Every tourist who comes in will mean more money to be spent and poured into the economy, from hotel, food, transportation to little things (souvenirs).
“My ministry will also come up with good packages and promotions to lure more tourists into the country,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the target is 30 million tourist arrivals with an estimated spinoff of RM100 billion in tourist receipts if the target is achieved for 2020.
To a question about Sarawak’s potential in offering luxury tourism considering many five-star hotels are coming up, the minister said Sarawak could reach that level in many years down the road.
“However, we will continue to promote Sarawak as a land for beauty, heritage, culture, nature and adventure instead for shopping. Lots of city people, including Singaporeans, would want to escape the bustling city. Regardless of their financial status (rich or poor), urban travellers want to go back to nature.
“Suffice to say that Sarawak doesn’t look into having more five-star hotel as Sarawak is promoting its beauty and nature, having said that perhaps in future when tourists are more inclined towards the city and the need to shop for luxury items only then we can focus on such segment,” he noted.
Also present were ministry permanent secretary Hii Chang Kee, Sarawak Tourism Board chief executive officer Sharzede Salleh Askor and Tourism Malaysia Sarawak director Bahruddin Sulaiman.
