The Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Preforming Arts supported 21 events and festivals with a total allocation of RM6.5 million.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said in addition, his ministry also supported creative industry players in the field of film and music, and the total allocation approved was RM883,175 for them to produce telemovies, documentaries and music videos.
“After two years of pandemic, many iconic events are scheduled to return this year. Among the events supported by the ministry are Pesta Babulang dan Lumba Kerbau (June 3-4), Sibu International Dance Festival (June 9-11), Sarawak Spartan Race (June 11-12), Rainforest World Music Festival (June 17-19), Borneo Jazz Festival (June 24-26), Borneo Cultural Festival (July 19-23), Sri Aman Tidal Bore Festival (September 9-11), Kuching Marathon (October 2), 8th Sarawak International Dragon Boat Regatta (October 28-30), Sarawak Regatta (November 4-6) and Miri Marathon (November 6),” he said.
He was delivering his ministerial winding-up speech today (May 25).
Abdul Karim assured that his ministry would continue to support highly potential festivals and events to boost the tourism industry by increasing the number of tourist arrivals.
“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 32 events were supported by my ministry in 2021 amounting to RM6.25 million.”
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim said a sum of RM1.84 million had granted to Business Events Planners Incentivised Packages (BEPIP).
“It is an incentive scheme to provide business event planners with additional financial and support for business events hosted from 2020- 2022.
“Since launching, the BEPIP in the same year has seen evidence of good business retention with very low event cancellations, more secured events, and excellent development of homegrown events. Therefore, my ministry has decided to continue with incentivising the support for all business events in 2022,” he said.
On the Sia Sitok Sarawak Plus that was launched on January 19, 2022, he said the programme aimed to give travellers the opportunity to visit Sarawak through its main tourism gateways, namely Kuching, Sibu and Miri.
“It is a collaboration between STB, Malaysia Airlines, Firefly and MASwings where customers can enjoy attractive hotel and flight packages via MHholidays.
“Through the Sia Sitok Sarawak Plus Interstate travel campaign, travellers will have access to 57 exciting packages to Sarawak,” he said.
Earlier, he said the Sia Sitok Sarawak campaigns received good response and generated more than RM6 million in sales value with a total of 2,269 tour packages involving 15,642 travellers.
“The wider range of domestic tour packages will create more interest among locals to travel widely in our state which will benefit the tour industry. We are also working with the hotel industry through Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) and Malaysian Budget Hotels Association (MyBHA) to have Sia Sitok Accommodation Staycation campaigns with 50 per cent discounted hotel accommodation.
“A total of more than RM3.5 million sales were recorded with 16,655 room nights which were booked through 47 participating hotels across Sarawak,” he said.
