All round support to "Seminar on Positioning Sarawak as Key Tourism Hub in ASEAN"

Our Government through Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry & Performing Arts Sarawak (MTCP) had fully supported the organising of seminar on "Positioning Sarawak as Key Tourism Hub in ASEAN" which was timely and appropriate.

The one-day seminar was held in Kuching City and was organised by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sarawak in collaboration with AirAsia and Malaysia Transport Institute (Mitrans) of UiTM Shah Alam.

I was delighted to be invited as guest of honour and the seminar had featured expert speakers and panellists from diverse fields such as aviation, digital platforms, gastronomy, geoparks, community development, and education. 

I had also expressed our utmost hope for the seminar could provide a unique opportunity to explore fresh perspectives and strategies that can elevate Sarawak’s tourism appeal to the global audience.

As mentioned in my closing speech, the participation of experts from outside of Sarawak, as well as others in various fields of tourism will enable the participants to gain valuable insights into Sarawak’s potential as a prominent ASEAN.

I had mentioned in my speech that Sarawak is intensifying its efforts to achieve economic prosperity, social inclusivity, and a sustainable environment under the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy 2030 (PCDS 2030).

Such strategy had identified our tourism sector was identified as a key driver for Sarawak’s economic growth and it is aimed to make us another leading destination for eco-tourism and business events in the ASEAN region.

On another note, we are optimistic in surpassing its previous record of receiving 4.6 million visitors back in 2019...aiming to achieve a milestone of 5 million visitor's arrivals by the end of 2024.

With this wonderful goal in mind, we have been monitoring the number of visitors arriving from January to May this year as there is a lot of exciting events and activities happening in Sarawak.

I have never seen such an upsurge in visitors coming into Sarawak. The last time was in 2019 before Covid-19 pandemic broke out. These numbers are sourced from the Immigration Department.

This year, we may be having the biggest number of visitors. From the number of visitors, there are more foreigners that are coming into Sarawak than those from West Malaysia. By end of May, we’ve got more than 2 million visitors. I believe by December it should be almost or over five million visitors,” said Abdul Karim.

We also look forward to working together with AirAsia and all stakeholders in the tourism industry in realising our mission as rightly outlined by the seminar which had received encouraging response from the public.