By Brad Rantayy
MIRI, Dec 11: Sarawak will kick-off a long-term tourism campaign next year. However, although Miri has, amongst others, many beautiful beaches like Bakam, Tusan and Luak which can attract tourists to its shores, there is one big problem — rubbish.
“Our beaches have a lot of rubbish,” lamented Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin.
“Efforts must be made to clean them up and maintain them. We cannot bring tourists to dirty beaches.”
He said this at the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB)-Media gathering here last night. Mingling with the 50-odd members of Northern Sarawak Journalists Association (NJSA) were STB chief executive officer Sharzede Datu Salleh Askor, NJSA president Andy Jong, STB director (Events and Corporate Relations) Angelina Bateman and STB director (Marketing) Benedict Jimbau.
On the press boys here, Lee said: “You can count on Miri media to portray Miri as a resort city, and they have been very enthusiastic in doing that.
“The success of Sarawak tourism depends on every one of us playing our part, talking about it, and telling your friends about Sarawak.”
Meanwhile, Sharzede commended the mass media in the state for helping the state and STB to promote the tourism industry through their writings.
She described the press as one of STB’s most trusted and dedicated partners.
“Our media portrays the community and cultures in the land in a way outsiders could not possibly understand,” she opined.
Sharzede added that it takes a special kind of understanding to portray multi-cultural and multi-religious Sarawak well.
“Showcasing differences, both stark and subtle, in between the lines of the different community within Sarawak to our diverse readers from throughout the world, it is you, the media community, who worked hard in delivering the messages of the people in full ‘technicolour’ realness to the world,” she said. — DayakDaily
