By Ling Hui
KUCHING, July 5: The tourism industry in Sarawak, which is gradually recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, has witnessed countless visitors from throughout the country thronging to local tourism attractions over the past two weeks.
State Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah noted that people were keen on going outdoors after three months of sitting at home due to the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO).
This included visiting tourism attractions such as Damai Beach Resort, Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) and Teluk Melano, Sematan.
“That is why the state government hopes to further stimulate domestic tourism by giving discounts to tourists visiting the places requiring payments.
“One of those places, of course, is the Sarawak Cultural Village,” said Abdul Karim when attending the re-opening ceremony and special discounted rates launch of SCV yesterday.
He also pointed out the special rates for visiting tourism spots in Sarawak would not be permanent, but at least be maintained until the end of this year.
“We hope that by then, we can encourage more local visitors to bring their families for gatherings.
“This is in the hope to increase the number of visitors to Sarawak which has plummeted drastically from February to May, especially during the period when flights were banned due to the pandemic,” he added.
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim added that gatherings or programmes originally planned by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture with the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) for this year would be re-evaluated, with some to be re-organised on a smaller scale.
“We want to have some entertainment of sorts going on for the rest of the year rather than having none at all,” said Abdul Karim.
Also present were federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri and Sarawak Economic Development Corporation chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Husain. —DayakDaily
