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InTel platform in tandem with digital economy agenda

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Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (centre) flanked by ministry's permanent secretary Hii Chang Kee and Sarawak Tourism Board CEO Datuk Sharzede Salleh Askor put his hand on a tab as a symbolic launch of STB inTEL and LGV e-learning and Networking at Baitul Makmur building in Petra Jaya, Kuching. Photo: Mohd Alif Noni

BY ANNABELL NAJA TOMMY and NEVILLE TIMOTHY SANDERS

KUCHING: The launch of Sarawak Tourism Board’s (STB) online data management platform, STB InTel, is a step towards ‘smart tourism’ in line with the digital economy agenda of the Sarawak government.

Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the data-sharing platform would help bring together public and private partnerships as well as efforts to create more detailed strategies and develop targeted products.

“Apart from generating marketing intelligence through STB’s InTel, engagement sessions will also be held regularly to enable stakeholders and industry players to provide STB feedback on the data that needs to go through and improve the usability and effectiveness of this data dashboard.

“With the tourism industry increasingly driven by data and innovation, we hope it can address current tourism challenges, identify potential tourism markets and create more effective practices,” he said.

He said this at the launch of the STB InTel and e-Learning platform with Lotus Voyager Group (LVG) here on Tuesday (May 10).

In this regard, Abdul Karim added that STB InTel will be another component in the backbone of Sarawak’s digital tourism strategy.

“Through this government-to-business (G2B) data-sharing initiative, we hope ministries and tourism industry stakeholders can leverage data collected from government agencies, tourism websites, as well as Google Analytics, to monitor the effectiveness of tourism strategies, identify new key opportunities and create new initiatives and policy proposals in the near future,” he said.

In other developments, he pointed out that their partnership with LVG involves a reliable European-based learning platform and network for tourists.

“This e-learning platform is to educate Sarawak as a tourism destination and its tourism products through the platform’s e-learning interface and interactive technology.

“I am proud that Sarawak is the first state to take the opportunity through the LVG learning platform to connect and collaborate with tourists around the world to highlight professionals and provide information on Sarawak products as a must-visit destination,” he said.

“As a continuation of training our locals to be well-equipped and become Sarawak Ambassadors, this partnership will provide a good opportunity for us to train prospective international travel agents through the ‘Sarawak Destination Course’ which will effectively expand our reach to the market and become the voice of Sarawak,” he said.

He said also mentioned that since the launch of the module in early April, there were now 1,346 outbound tour operators in the region who were ready to register for the course.

“We expect more than 10,000 selected travel agents to be trained under the course by the end of 2022. The programme will set up 1,000 new users for the course each month with promotions lined up in India, the Nordic market and the United Kingdom in the coming months.

The STB InTel can be accessed on the STB official website at the link
www.sarawaktourism.com.

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