By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, April 23: Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah is concerned that current hotel accommodation capacity in inadequate to meet expected stronger demand.
He said that people are more confident about travelling and promotions by the Sarawak government have propelled the region into the limelight.
“For the next six months, I believed that there will be an influx of visitors to Sarawak and I hope the private sectors will be looking into hotels. I am worried about that (hotel accommodations),” he said.
“Sheraton in Kuching City centre will open for operation in July but I informed them, to begin with a soft opening as there be lots of people coming especially to the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF),” he added.
He told reporters this at his Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house which he hosted with his wife Datin Sri Zuraini Abdul Jabbar at their residence along Jalan Astana today.
Abdul Karim said he wanted to see more hotels built and it does not matter whether there are 2 to 5-star ratings as long as there is a balance and the options are affordable.
“There are those who come here for conferences, normally professionals, so they could go for four-star or five star (accommodation), but there are those who come for holidays, sports competitions, medical (visits), they would go for three-star. So there has to be a balance and this would be better,” he said.
Abdul Karim opined that new hotel developments should be spread out across Sarawak and not confined to just Kuching.
“For example, with Sarawak hosting Sukan Malaysia (Sukma), there must be widespread accommodation as everyone wants to benefit from the spin-off. It would be great for the hospitality industry,” he said. — DayakDaily
