MIRI: The Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) will continue to engage with local industry players as one of the strategies to revive the tourism industry in Sarawak.
Its chairman Dennis Ngau said local industry player played an important role in helping to boost the industry affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Therefore, they must be really ready to welcome as many tourists as possible to Sarawak throughout this year.
“Local operators must be ready to bring them to travel, prepare for their transportation and also be good tour guides,” he said when met by reporters after a courtesy call with the Northern Sarawak Journalists Association (NSJA) at Telang Usan Service Centre, yesterday (May 13).
Dennis, who is also the assemblyman for Telang Usan, said some of the inbound operators who faced difficulties during the pandemic had now come back and started their operations again.
“And as for the tourists, after staying at home for a long time, they mostly prefer tourist destinations with local food and cultures in Sarawak,” he said.
Dennis also said that STB had various programmes lined up to promote Sarawak as favourable tourist destination.
“It is also proven that for the first three months this year, we had an increase of 500 per cent tourist arrivals compared to the same period last year.
“This year we are targeting about 1.2 million and we believe we can achieve this figure and I believe it will be more than this,” he said.
