KUCHING: Starting September last year, the Sarawak government has been spending over RM15 million per month to cover the cost of hotel quarantine for Sarawakians.
“This is all borne by the state government and no other state in Malaysia is doing this. That reflects how concerned the state is in trying to protect Sarawakians from Covid-19,” said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
He recalled that during dialogues with hoteliers last year when the borders were closed due to the pandemic, there were many complaints regarding the drop in occupancy.
“But now I don’t hear anymore of these complaints because a lot of the hotels are being used as quarantine centres and the state government is paying the hotels,” he said when officiating at the launching ceremony of the Kuching Metro Electric City Bus here today.
During a press conference following the ceremony, he expressed his belief that there would come a time when only those with a special pass or passport indicating that they had been vaccinated would be allowed to travel across borders.
“I believe that it is not only Malaysia who is seeing it from this perspective but other countries as well. For Singapore, Indonesia, and Brunei — maybe they will not receive Sarawakians unless they have this pass.”
He said if the neighbouring countries were to apply such a move, Sarawak could do so as well.
Abdul Karim believed that once Sarawak had achieved 60 to 70 percent in its vaccination level, restrictions on inter-district travel would be relaxed.
He said due to the pandemic, visitor arrivals to Sarawak last year had dropped by 74 percent to 1,199,872 compared to the corresponding period in 2019, which was 4,662,419.
“Tourism receipts also dropped tremendously by 75 percent to RM2.88 billion compared to the corresponding period in 2019,” he said, adding that the pandemic had significantly impacted the tourism industry with an estimated total loss of RM8.69 billion.
Nevertheless, he believed that the state’s tourism industry could be revived by boosting domestic tourism activities through the ‘Sia Sitok Sarawak’ campaign and enhancing the people’s confidence to travel domestically while the borders were still closed.
He said in some ways, the closure of borders was blessings as it made Sarawakians appreciate the beautiful travel destinations in their very own backyard.
“With the availability of the vaccine, domestic travel within Malaysia and Sarawak is expected to slowly recover in the second half of this year, anticipating a total visitor arrival of 1.1 million with an estimated tourism receipt of RM2.64 billion.
“This estimated target will depend very much on the Covid-19 global situation.”
Also present were Assistant Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting; Assistant Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Snowdan Lawan; Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture permanent secretary Hii Chang Kee; Sarawak Business Federation president Datuk Abang Abdul Karim Tun Abang Openg; Henz Pacific Sdn Bhd managing director Henry Lai, and other representatives.
