18th May 2009 - Visitor Arrival To Sarawak On The Decline

KUCHING, May 18 (Bernama) -- Visitor arrival to Sarawak has contracted 8.92 per cent for the first quarter of this year due to uncertainties in the global economy, said Urban Development and Tourism Minister Datuk Micheal Manyin.

Manyin said, in the first quarter of 2009, a total of 737,244 visitors came to Sarawak compared to 809,427 visitors in the same period last year.

"We are happy to inform that despite a negative overall first quarter decline, we recorded a 25 percent growth in arrivals from Singapore and 5 percent from Australia," he said in his winding-up speech for his ministry at the State Legislative Assembly here Monday.

Manyin said the increase of visitors from Singapore and Australia was largely due to a change of strategy that was implemented at the end of last year.

Overall for the past two-years, Manyin said, visitor arrival to Sarawak declined by 5.3 percent from 3.60 million in 2007 to 3.41 million last year.

"Foreign and domestic visitor arrival have declined by 6.04 percent and 3.77 percent respectively," he said.

On a positive note, he said, visitors from China increased by 48 percent, South Korea by 18 percent, Japan by 10 percent and Indonesia by eight percent.

To improve air connectivity, he said, the state goverment was in the midst of negotiations with Tiger Airways and Jet Star to fly tourists from Singapore to Miri.

If successful, he said, it will give a boost to tourism promotion and marketing efforts in the northern part of Sarawak which had many attractive destination such as Niah and Lambir.

"These direct flights into Miri will allow us to offer our various packages in culture, adventure and nature to entice Singaporeans, expatriates and tourists in Singapore," he said.

-- BERNAMA

If we do get the direct flights, two things may happen:

1. More tourists come into Miri and we get a tourist-y boost in the economy, or
2. more Mirians going out than Singaporeans coming in. Hey, who's to say it couldn't happen.