KUCHING: The local travel agencies have been urged to come up with more attractive and creative tour packages in order to grow and push the tourism industry towards greater heights.
According to Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports, Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, the number of tourist arrival in the State in 2017 (4,856,888) had increased compared to 2016 (4,661,100) “We need to improve the overall standard and quality of products and services within the tourism industry, from accommodation, restaurants, tour guides to packages, and make Sarawak a preferred tourism destination,” said Assistant Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Lee Kim Shin, who read Karim’s speech text during the launching ceremony of the 13th MATTA Fair 2018 at CityOne Megamall here yesterday.
He also pointed out that the national parks were popular among local and foreign tourists and there was room for improvement as the facilities were not up to expectation. He explained that it was to ensure that those who came, were happy with what they found. Otherwise, it would be unfavourable to the State’s tourism.
“Our effort will include providing tourism-related training to industry players and increase international and domestic flights to the state while putting more focus on sports tourism, eco-tourism, adventure-based tourism and farm tourism, to make it more diverse and attractive for visitors.
“I urge all tourism players to take part, and be pro-active and aggressive in promoting domestic tour packages to push Sarawak tourism sector especially for the northern region of Sarawak,” said Lee. The 13th MATTA Fair 2018 is being held from 7 to 9 September 2018 at CityOne Megamall.
