By Ling Hui
KUCHING, July 25: The occupancy rate of hotels in Sarawak is slowly increasing mainly due to the growth of domestic travelling within Sarawak, said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
He also noted the greater number of tourists from Peninsular Malaysia, especially foreigners who were working in private sectors in Kuala Lumpur visiting places in the state due to limited entertainment available during the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Now we have opened up, I believe by September when the number of incoming flights (to Malaysia) turn back to normal, we can see the number of visitors increasing as well,” he said during a press conference at the new Beccari Discovery trail launching at Mount Matang here today.
Abdul Karim revealed there was a decrease of 50 to 60 per cent in tourists’ arrivals in Sarawak for the past one month as compared to the same period last year before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Although the number shows less number of tourists than last year, there is an increase from only 10 per cent of last year’s statistics in the months during MCO (Movement Control Order).
“But this is something which we expected because we (Malaysia) were the one to lock down the country,” he said. —DayakDaily
