LONG LAMA: The Covid-19 pandemic has been a huge obstacle for Sarawak’s tourism industry.
“We hope Covid-19 will go away as soon as possible so that our tourism industry can flourish again, and that is why, for the past two days, we have this Tourism Awareness programme to prepare our tourism players post-Covid-19,” said Tourism , Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah today.
He also expressed his optimism that the state’s tourism industry would thrive next year.
He was met after the closing of the Tourism Awareness programme at Dewan SJKC Kee Tee here.
Abdul Karim said tourist arrivals for this year, compared to the previous year for the period of January until November, dropped by three million visitors.
“In 2019, for the period of January to November, we recorded tourist arrivals of 4.1 million, but this figure dropped to 1.1 million for 2020 (Jan-Nov) or 71.5 percent.”
Meanwhile, for the month of November this year, compared to 2019, tourist arrivals dropped by 95.76 percent.
“For that particular month, we recorded at about 13, 362 tourists compared to 412, 939 last year.”
On the programme itself, Abdul Karim believed that it would be able to help the local community to explore the travel and tourism sector.
“Local community involvement is crucial in promoting places of interest within their areas.”
He added that Telang Usan had a huge potential. “Given the fact that this place has its beautiful cultural and natural heritage all around,” he said.
Also present were Assistant Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting and Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau, who is also chairman of Sarawak Tourism Board.
