LETTER
As reported recently, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah stated that the state hoped to achieve five million visitors for the year which is well received by the tourism and related industries in the state.
Sarawak definitely has a number of attractions and sites for visitors and Sipa (Sarawak Institute for Public Affairs) is fully supportive of the initiative. However, there are a few issues that need to be addressed by Sarawak in relation to the dream of becoming a major destination for tourism related industries.
Foremost, Sarawak must be more aggressive in overcoming logistics hurdles of limited flights to and from the state. This bottleneck has always been the sore point with local and foreign investors in Sarawak which unfortunately is akin to the chicken and egg question – how to offer more flights when the numbers are not there and how to get the numbers when the flights are lacking.
Direct flights to and from Sarawak are preferred but currently there are only a few of these only. As mooted by the state, setting up of a state airline may be one of the options to be seriously considered for the development of the tourism and related industries in Sarawak.
To attract visitors, there must be enough places to visit, things to do and explore or extraordinary sites like World Heritage Gunong Mulu National Park.
Currently, Sarawak’s Rainforest World Music Festival is the most famous and attractive event which have in recent years being staged in conjunction with food festivals and other related events in and around the state capital Kuching.
Certainly, there have to be more things to do throughout the state and to coordinate these events in such a way that visitors could enjoy themselves with minimum hassle of travel and cost.
Package deals for groups of events and celebrations could be considered as a start as such packages can attract large numbers which will boost Sarawak’s presence internationally.
Among the main drawing pointers for Sarawak are relatively lower cost compared to other destinations in Malaysia, variety of foods, people and places unique to each ethnic groups and safe surroundings.
A number of health tourism related packages have also been started by various institutions taking advantage of the proximity of neighboring states and these offers could be similarly coordinated to reap maximum benefit for such visitors to the state.
With the impending completion of major connecting roads in Sarawak, the future for tourism industry looks good but coordinated effort must be in place between the public and private sectors for the industry to move forward at a faster rate.
PHILIP WONG PAK MING,
Kuching
Philip Wong is a director for Sarawak Institute for Public Affairs (Sipa). He is an entrepreneur and author, and is passionate about travelling, having visited over 100 countries to date.
