By Ashley Sim
KUCHING, Sept 29: Seven Singapore-based agents have arrived in Kuching today, chosen by the Sarawak Trade Tourism Office Singapore (Statos) and Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) for their demonstrated commitment to actively promote Sarawak holiday packages in Singapore.
The group is led by two Statos officers and includes representatives from Broadway Travel, Muhibbah Travel, QQ Travel, EU Holidays, Going Places, Neway Travel, and Singatour.
The four-day programme, which runs from Sept 29 to Oct 2, is designed to highlight experiences that directly appeal to the Singapore market, as identified in the recently published Singapore travel market research study.
With food being one of Singapore’s main selling points, the programme will include a delectable food-trail offering various dining experiences, during which participants will sample local delicacies such as Sarawak Laksa, Kolo Mee, and Ice Kacang.
Furthermore, the Singapore travel agents will also visit several must-see attractions during their stay, including the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, the newly opened Borneo Cultures Museum, Siniawan Night Market, and the ever-popular Sarawak Culture Village.
According to Neway Travel operation manager Sidney Chua, the group expects to see some new sights and improvements in Sarawak, as the last time most of them visited Sarawak was probably eight to ten years ago.
“As a result, we expect to see both new and familiar things. We anticipate seeing Kuching as Kuching, but renewed,” Chua told reporters today during the welcoming ceremony of Singapore travel agents at the Kuching International Airport (KIA) in conjunction with the first post-pandemic agents familiarisation trip held earlier at the KIA here.
He continued by saying that moving forward, they hope to increase the number of tourists visiting Sarawak.
Meanwhile, Statos tourism and gallery senior executive Aven Yong, noted that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the team conducted a number of webinars to share Kuching’s attractions with Singapore’s tourism industry players.
“Today, I’d say it’s a very good initiative; it’s a joint collaboration between Statos and STB for this four-day, three-night fam trip here, and it’s the first post-pandemic fam trip in three years.
“It meant a lot to us because we are working very hard in Singapore, and during the pandemic, we discovered that nobody wanted to sell Sarawak, especially the tourism players in Singapore, and now we have more than ten Singapore travel agents who are interested in selling Sarawak, which is a good thing,” Yong explained.
He went on to say that during their four days and three nights in Kuching, they will visit all of the must-see attractions, including Sarawak Cultural Village and the newly opened Borneo Cultures Museum.
“We recently conducted market research in Singapore and discovered that Singaporeans love food, and we believe that this is a great opportunity for us because Sarawak has a lot of local delicacies that we can offer them.
“And we’ll take the group to some of the local shops here, particularly near Carpenter Street.
“We’ll let them physically experience the food here, and we hope that this trip will boost their confidence in selling Sarawak in the Singapore market,” he added.
In addition, Statos chief executive officer (CEO) Chew Chang Guan stated in a press release that the number of Singaporean visitors to Sarawak has remained positive since the reopening of borders in April, with Singapore attracting 12,984 visitors between March and August of this year.
“The time is right for us to bring Singapore agents to Sarawak to visit and rediscover everything Kuching has to offer.
“With many exciting new tourism products to showcase, it will certainly give our agents plenty of new ideas to upgrade and add value to their next tour packages,” Chew said. — DayakDaily
