Kuching Park Hotel staff member Samantha Wilfred showing the hotel's digital self check-in facility. - ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star
KUCHING: Sarawak is targeting three million visitor arrivals this year after performing better than expected in 2022.
State Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the state's tourism industry was back on track with an uptrend in visitor numbers following the reopening of borders.
"Last year we received 2.02mil arrivals, more than our anticipated number of 1.2mil.
"So this year we're pushing the target up to three million and I'm sure we can meet it," he said when opening the new Kuching Park Hotel here on Tuesday (Feb 21).
Abdul Karim said Sarawak was already off to a good start with strong visitor figures recorded last month.
The state received 319,064 arrivals comprising 172,983 foreigners and 146,081 domestic visitors, an increase of 454% from 72,331 in January last year.
Most of the foreign visitors came from Brunei with 104,653, followed by Indonesia (44,090), Singapore (4,703), the Philippines (2,975) and China (1,900).
Sarawak also recorded tourism receipts of RM809.37mil last month, up by 397% from RM162.89mil in January 2022.
Abdul Karim said the state's tourism sector was targeting specific markets, mainly focusing on domestic, regional and medium-haul markets.
"This includes visitors from our neighbouring countries in Asean and the Middle East. We will also be marketing Sarawak in Europe and Britain in the next few months," he said.
On the matter of moving tourism from the federal list to the concurrent list of the Federal Constitution's Ninth Schedule, Abdul Karim said it was likely to be revisited in the future.
"Tourism is still on the federal list. We leave it as it is for now, but there will come a time when we might have to revisit this. Presently there are so many areas we have to revisit, such as the continental shelf and the Petroleum Development Act.
"As far as tourism is concerned, we cooperate together," he said in response to a question.
It was previously reported that the Sarawak government wanted tourism to be moved from the federal list to the concurrent list.
The state legislative assembly was told last May that the state government had proposed a constitutional amendment on this matter, which would give Sarawak legislative power over tourism.
