KUCHING: Sarawak's visitor arrivals grew by 2.9% to 4.97 million last year, while tourism receipts increased by 1.8% to RM12.67bil, says state Deputy Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting.
He said this reflected the success of strategies and infrastructure projects undertaken to support the tourism sector.
In 2024, the state recorded 4.83 million visitors and RM12.45bil in tourism receipts.
"While these positive outcomes cannot be attributed to any single tourism infrastructure project, they reflect the collective impact of sustained investments in tourism infrastructure, destination development, improved connectivity, tourism promotion and close collaboration with industry stakeholders in strengthening Sarawak's tourism sector," he told Miro Simuh (GPS-Serembu) during Question Time in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly on Thursday (Oct 15).
He said proposed tourism infrastructure projects were assessed based on their potential contribution towards key outcomes under the state's post-Covid development strategy.
These include increasing tourism's contribution to 11% of gross domestic product, create 25% tourism-related employment, achieve 7.5% annual growth in visitor arrivals and expand community-based tourism participation by 30%.
Ting also said his ministry was overseeing 33 projects statewide amounting to RM486.39mil.
This comprises 21 state-funded projects worth RM408.38mil in total, one Projek Rakyat worth RM52mil and 11 federal-funded projects amounting to RM26.01mil.
"These projects are implemented by various agencies such as the Public Works Department, Land Custody and Development Authority, Sarawak Forestry Corporation, Sarawak Economic Development Corporation and local councils," he said.
