By Malcolm Lau
KUCHING, Dec 10: The Sarawak tourism sector managed to contribute RM11 billion which is 7.5 per cent to the Sarawak Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the year 2018.
Among the RM11 billion, the value of the retail trade is RM3.5 billion (31.5 per cent), followed by accommodation, food and beverages services which are RM3.4 billion (31.3 per cent).
According to a press release by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, a total of RM11.6 billion was recorded for the sum of inbound tourism expenditure and domestic tourism expenditure. Automotive fuel, passenger transport, travel agencies and other services expenditure had valued at RM4.1 billion.
The total of inbound tourism expenditure component had contributed 53.2 per cent of the total amount while the remaining 46.8 per cent was from the domestic tourism expenditure.
RM2.9 million inbound tourism expenditure was used for passenger transport, travel agencies and other reservation services and it is the major contribution in the year 2019 while the domestic expenditure was boosted by shopping activity with the value of RM2.6 Billion.
Meanwhile, a total of 0.24 million persons (19.1 per cent) of employees involved in the tourism industry and most of them are employed in the retail trade industry, accommodation and food and beverages serving services. — DayakDaily
