KUCHING: Award-winning Kuching-based tour and travel company Amogha Tours and Travel Sdn Bhd has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with a local tech startup ARx Media Sdn Bhd.
At the signing ceremony, ARx was represented by their founders Jimsley Lim, Nicholas Bong and Louis Muk while Amogha Tours was represented by directors Ashweein Narayanan, Capt (Rtd) Narayanan Kannan, and sales and operations manager Cecilia Contessa Balakrishnan.
It was witnessed by Sarawak Tourism Federation (STF) president Audry Wan Ullok, along with other key tourism players from STF and also representatives from Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA).
The inking of the MoA, held at Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) Boardroom, Plaza Aurora on Aug 21, was significant to the growth of the Tourism Technology initiatives of Sarawak, as prominent products of technology would be initiated and further deliberated upon.
To date, Amogha and ARx have produced four virtual reality (VR) products to promote locations in Sarawak, namely Sarawak Cultural Village, Bako National Park, Mulu National Park, and Bario highlands.
On top of that, they also developed Augmented Reality (AR) Murals, to create a digital city tour with the treasure hunt component, to further increase the diaspora of products available in Sarawak.
According to Ashweein, the technology for VR and AR was not exactly novel or new, however the effective utilisation of these technologies had been improved over time to focus on teasing the customer or potential tourist to come to the tourist attractions.
“Not only that, there is no need to look overseas for technology efforts, thanks to the Digital Village initiative from SMA, in which ARx was incubated from, there are a lot of tech startups eager to make a mark in the state, maybe even in the world,” he said.
He also reiterated that this effort was very much in line with the Industry Revolution 4.0 vision championed by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
Meanwhile, Audry added that STF was also the platform for private sectors to come forth and request support, especially in initiatives such as this.
