KUCHING: The Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts (MTCP) welcomes plans to increase direct flights from China to Sarawak.
Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the matter was important to attract more tourists and visitors.
“We definitely welcome good planning to attract more tourists to Sarawak, especially with direct flights because our problem in Sarawak is flight connectivity.
“If the (federal) Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing can arrange direct flights from China to Kuching, Bintulu and Sibu, we welcome this, as long as it is implemented in an orderly manner.”
Abdul Karim said this during a press conference after officiating the adjournment of the Suntong Festival at the Bako National Park Passenger Terminal, here on Wednesday (June 5).
On another matter, he said the Sarawak government is indeed in an effort to upgrade all the international airports in Kuching, Miri, Bintulu at the moment.
“If it is with great flight connectivity from China and other countries we cannot be left behind.
“Moreover, when we have our own airline, it is not only for domestic routes or with Peninsular Malaysia but it is also a regional airline that also goes to Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia and so on.”
Touching on visas, he said that Malaysia, including Sarawak, has implemented visa exemptions for China tourists.
“We don’t just focus on China, that’s why we promote tourism to Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, India, including Hong Kong, Korea and Thailand.”
For the record, Tiong announced that plans are being made to establish direct flights to Sarawak, namely to Kuching, Bintulu and Sibu from a few cities in China.
According to him, so far one flight will start a direct flight to Sarawak which is a flight from Yunnan to Kuching and the other is in the final study stage by Xiamen Airlines from Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province to Sibu.
