By Jaythaleela K
MIRI, March 26: Tourism products in Kampung Lajong, Sibuti will be further developed to spur the local tourism sector, says Assistant Minister of Women, Family and Childhood Development Rosey Yunus.
Disclosing this on Monday after witnessing the final deployment of reef balls at Niah-Sibuti Coral Reefs National Park (MSCRNP), she said the Sarawak government encourages the village’s residents to set up homestays as an alternative tourism product for sustainable community development.
“When we have homestays, we can further develop other products to rope in tourists to come here,” she opined.
Amongst cited examples of tourism products that have high possibility to be developed at Kampung Lajong to make it a tourist attraction were crocodile spotting and its vast mangrove forests.
“With the deployment of reef balls off the Niah-Sibuti waters, besides improving the (the population of) fish and other marine life, it supports other activities such as scuba diving,” she opined.
As part of the Sarawak government’s marine conservation works, future development would also involve capacity-building and training for marine park guiding and scuba diving for relevant and interested parties.
“We called it beyond conservation works,” Rosey explained.
Kampung Lajong is located at about two hours’ drive from Miri city. It has a population of nearly 300 villagers, with close to half working as fishermen.
The nearby Miri-Sibuti Marine National Park (186,930 hectares) is one of the largest marine parks in Sarawak. It is home to many marine species such as sea turtles, whale sharks as well as coral reef complexes.
It is also part of the ‘sea turtle highway’ or migratory routes where sea turtles head to its beaches to nest annually, yielding hundreds of sea turtle hatchlings.
Also present at the event were Deputy State Secretary (Rural Transformation) Datu Jaul Samion and Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) general manager Oswald Braken. — DayakDaily
