By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Nov 19: Sarawak has surpassed its target of 4 million visitors for this year as of Nov 15, boosting confidence in reaching 5 million visitors next year.
Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts (MTCP) Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the various international events and national-level tourism events, conventions, conferences and meetings has resulted in garnering the 4,088,732 visitors.
“Sarawak’s tourism sector forecasts full recovery by 2025. Thus, my ministry will strive to achieve 5 million visitors in 2025, as announced by our Sarawak Premier (Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg) during the 2025 Budget speech, generating RM12.73 billion (RM12,734,918) in tourism receipts.
“The tourism sector growth so far is in line with most of the goals outlined in the Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy 2030 (PCDS 2030),” he said when presenting his ministerial winding-up speech in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUS) sitting here today.
He noted that Sarawak’s highest recorded total of annual tourist arrivals was in 2019, with 4.6 million visitors.
“We have never achieved 5 million as yet so we are looking at 2025 as the first year that we will be able to hit the 5-million target.
“In 2019, we managed to hit 4.6 million and in 2020, we placed a target of 5 million. However, the whole thing plunged down because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added. — DayakDaily
