KUCHING: The Tourism, Arts and Culture ministry will take over the monitoring of overloaded boats if the safety of visitors travelling to the Bako National Park (NP) is
jeopardised.
Its minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah stated this in a press conference after a townhall session held at Grand Margherita Hotel here yesterday.
“We hope to see the ferrying of visitors from the terminal to the national park is done in compliance to the safety rules.
“We know that there are many cases of overloading of boats ferrying tourists which is why I have told the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) that if things go bad, we (the ministry) will take over as we do not want the lives of the visitors to be in danger.
“Apart from that, we may even look into enforcement in this matter even though the Sarawak Rivers Board is supposed to be the one to monitor the boats to see whether they are overloaded or not,” he said.He added that as of August, 2.9 million visitors were recorded by the state’s tourism
industry.
He said while domestic visitors have increased, foreign tourists from countries such as China have decreased.
However, he said visitors from Singapore have increased.
Abdul Karim mentioned five reasons why visitors come to Sarawak: Culture, Adventure, Nature, Food and Festivals.
“That is why Bako National Park is ranked first among other parks in attracting visitors as on average, there are about 150 visitors going to the park daily.
“There are about 70 boats in Bako arranged by the local villagers, but measures on visitors’ safety must be given and to the villagers as they are the boat operators.
“If a boat’s limit is 10 passengers, then let it be at 10 and do not go beyond the limit. Other safety necessities such as life jackets must also be in place,” he said.
The townhall session which began at 3pm took almost two hours to wrap up.
The session involved industry players such as Sarawak Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry; Malaysia Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry; Sarawak Tourism Federation; Sarawak Tourist Guides Association; Malaysian Association of Hotels; Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC); operators of home-stays; and local city councils.
