GEDONG: Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri has urged the people of Gedong to get involved as homestay, craft, and tour guide operators as these careers provide high income returns while generating new tourism products which could elevate Gedong as a new tourism destination.
“There are 46 homestays registered with Motac in Sarawak, with a total of 631 operators. In the period of January to September last year, the total income generated was over RM936,000 through the arrival of 7,056 local and foreign tourists who are in our country,” said the Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) Minister.
She said this at the Batang Sadong Heritage Cuisine Finals programme for the Gedong area held at Gedong Community Hall on Friday (March 26).
“The number of tour guides registered with Motac in Sarawak is 175 including 19 tour guides who have just successfully undergone the Regional Specific Tourist Guide (RSTG) course, out of 17,066 tour guides throughout Malaysia – based on statistics from January to September last year.”
She added that this did not include park guides working in national parks in Sarawak, licensed by Forest Department Sarawak.
“Therefore, we need more tour guides to be registered with Motac to meet the current and future demands of the tourism industry.”
The Batang Sadong MP said the craft industry in Sarawak recorded a sales value of RM16.7mil throughout last year with a total of 1,051 craft entrepreneurs registered with Kraftangan Malaysia.
As for this year up until February, she said the sales value generated by 1,064 craft entrepreneurs in Sarawak had reached RM1.99mil.
“I believe the residents of this area can offer attractive packages that can be included in homestay holidays to attract more tourists.”
She pointed out that the government had provided various initiatives and assistance to ease the burden faced by tourism, arts, and culture industry players.
“A total of 93 tourism operators in Sarawak have benefitted from the Penjana initiative which provides fee exemption for tourism operators and tour guides licensed under the Tourism Industry Act 1992 (Act 482).”
She also urged industry players to promote tourism destinations which were hidden gems, seeing as tourists now preferred safe and comfortable destinations with fewer crowds.
