KUCHING: Despite an influx of activities from China in various sectors and industries such as tourism and filming, more needs to be done to increase Sarawak’s presence in China.
During an exclusive interview with the New Sarawak Tribune, Consul-General of People’s Republic of China in Kuching, Fu Jijun revealed that between Sabah and Sarawak, the former had a greater presence in his home country.
“At the airports in China, you can see travel brochures and packages about Sabah on display there. A lot of the locals there know and recognise Sabah.“There are also more direct flights (11 to be exact), between Sabah and China; more effort needs to be put into promoting Sarawak’s presence there,” he said.
Fu recommended inviting more tourism agencies as well as members of the media from China to Sarawak.“Bring them to tourist destinations and places of interests in Sarawak so that they can take a look for themselves to see what Sarawak has to offer.
“After that, they can show the people back home what is in Sarawak, which will promote Sarawak in China,” he said. Last year, he noted that the state government invited 10 tourism agencies to Sarawak and said that this strategy should go on.
“We have hundreds of tourism agencies in different provinces of China. I would highly recommend inviting them more so to increase the tourism influence of Sarawak. “Another way of promoting Sarawak is by invite creative writers and media agencies from China to the state.
“The only exposure that has been done was by the CCTV4 Channel, which aired eight documentaries on Sarawak. Invite more media to influence readers and viewers in China,” said Fu. He also noted that last year, 300,000 Chinese tourists visited Sabah.
On the suspension of a direct flight between Hong Kong and Kuching, he expressed his sadness but assured that it did not affect the number of arrivals from China tourists in the state.“In 2015, there were about 32,000 tourist arrivals from China and last year, we saw an increase to approximately 38,000.
“For this year, we are expecting the numbers to increase to more than 40,000. We expect to see not only more tourists here but also more investments from China,” he said.
On the suspension of the Kuching – Hong Kong direct flight, he hoped that the state government would work on bringing it back as it would benefit travellers from both sides.“It would be easier to travel and travellers don’t have to stop at transit points like Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.
“When a new flight is introduced, a new airway is established and this involves high expenses. Hence, a thorough market study has to be conducted.
“Due to low profits, the airline decided to discontinue the direct flight,” said Fu. Previously, Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Lee Kim Shin revealed that the flight was suspended because of poor demand.
Lee explained that the airport already had its hands full since it handled about 64 to 68 flights an hour. “The airport there is very busy and has limited landing slots and it has to optimise the operations of planes with passenger loads of 80 percent and above.
“Those with lower passenger loads had to get cut and our passenger load was at about 63 percent on the average,” explained Lee. Apart from that, the media visit to China from 19 June to 28 June is to expose readers in Sarawak to the history of China.
“Delegates from Sarawak will be visiting various historical and iconic places in three provinces of China, namely, Henan, Shangdu and Shanxi. “Two English dailies including the New Sarawak Tribune, four Chinese dailies and one radio station will be going on the trip.
“Apart from that, we are expecting nine members of independent media to join us as well,” said Fu. Delegates will depart for China on 19 June and return to the state on 28 June.
