KUCHING: The Mini s ter of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports, Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said that taxi operators should consider transitioning into e-hailing services. He revealed that this was due to the fact that tourists were more familiar to these modes of transportation since Grab and Uber operates internationally.
“We know that our public transportation here is not very efficient. Hence, many use Grab and Uber to their destination due to its efficiency and affordable price. “They (taxi drivers) cannot tell the developers of these e-hailing services to stop their operations. This is technology taking over the traditional system.
“Hence, I would advice taxi operators to consider transitioning into Uber or Grab to generate better income.
“I understand that operating taxi is also costly as they have to pay twice a month to PUSPAKOM to have their vehicles checked and so on,” added Karim after the official handing over ceremony of the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports that took place at Baitulmakmur in Petra Jaya here on Wednesday.
Similar issue appeared when the Darul Hana Br idge was opened and it has been affecting the passenger boats. Meanwhile, Karim disclosed that his ministry is targeting a total of 5.25 million tourists arrivals for 2018. Up to November 2017, tourists arrival in Sarawak stood at 4.8 million while in 2016, the total was 4.6 million.
