By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Jan 1: The Visit Sarawak Campaign that carries the tagline ‘More to Discover’ is to shout out to the world that Sarawak has more offerings than anyone can imagine.
The campaign to present Sarawak as the preferred tourism destination in the Southeast Asia region aims to draw in five million visitor arrivals to the state this year and bring in an estimated tourism receipt of RM8.79 billion.
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah pointed out that one needs to come to Sarawak to personally discover the attractions instead of just looking at it on the screens.
“The tagline covers a wide spectrum of needs and wants of our audience and what Sarawak has to offer, but of course, with the value for money experiences attached to it,” he said at the New Year Countdown and the launching of Visit Sarawak Campaign at the Kuching Waterfront here last night.
Describing this campaign as the ‘mother of all tourism campaigns’, he emphasised that the launch marked a significant development in the history of Sarawak’s tourism sector.
“The ministry, through Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), has geared up for an aggressive marketing campaign to bring Sarawak’s tourism business into a new height. It will bring back our much-needed destinations’ visibility in all our focus markets, including the domestic, regional, Europe and Australia,” he said.
The campaign’s rainbow coloured logo spelling out Sarawak with the tagline ‘More to Discover’ has been rolled out in a pre-launching event, which started in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 16, followed by Singapore (Oct 18), London, UK (Nov 7) and Shenzhen, China (Dec 19).
With the launch of the campaign here, he expressed confidence that air connectivity to the state would slowly but surely be addressed to assist in facilitating movement of tourists and travellers to Sarawak.
“The Royal Brunei direct flight to the hub of Bandar Seri Begawan connects us to focus markets in the United Kingdom, Melbourne and to numerous cities in North Asia, including China,” he said.
“AirAsia is launching its Sibu and Bintulu to Kota Kinabalu flights as well as our twice-weekly Haikou-Kuching scheduled charter in the middle of next month. All these give an indication that our connectivity is slowly being resolved.”
As from last night, Abdul Karim revealed the Sarawak branding was up and alive in many LED digital billboards in major shopping areas and malls throughout Malaysia, in particular in Kuala Lumpur.
Other promotional platforms include the social media, AirAsia aircraft flying the regional routes will feature livery of Sarawak’s majestic hornbill icon and the campaign logo by late January, international trade and consumer fairs in focus markets as well as roadshows, business sessions and trade engagements.
The anchor emblem for the Visit Sarawak campaign, with the tagline, ‘More to Discover’, underscores Sarawak Tourism Board (STB)’s marketing strategy to position the state as a plethora of culture, adventure, nature, food, and festivals (CANFF), an experience that is not found anywhere else in the world, and yet ready to be discovered.
Comprising seven colours in a curled script, the red and yellow colours represent the Sarawak’s flag while orange represents the strong spirit and vibrant energy of the different ethnic communities within Sarawak, which is quintessential to Sarawak’s diverse tourism proposition.
Green is used to represent the verdant rainforests abundant with wildlife and blue is used to represent the calmness of the ocean along Sarawak’s long coastline.
The uniqueness of the logo is augmented by the hornbill, which replaces the letter ‘A’ representing Sarawak’s moniker ‘Bumi Kenyalang’ or ‘Land of the Hornbills’ that Sarawak has been known for many years. It is also an important symbol of luck to the indigenous people of Sarawak. — DayakDaily
