KUCHING, 4 October 2022: Sarawak Tourism Board organised a familiarisation trip for Indonesian, Bruneian and Singaporean travel agents to discover Sarawak’s melting pot of culture, adventure, nature, food and festivals first-hand.
Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore topped Sarawak’s list for visitor arrivals pre-pandemic in 2019. Brunei was ranked first with 1,296,017 visitor arrivals, followed by Indonesia, second with 418,461 and Singapore fourth with 46,812 arrivals.
With the recovery of the tourism sector now underway, STB deputy chief executive officer for integrated marketing communications, Suriya Charles Buas, told the opening business networking session that the familiarisation trip would introduce new and upgraded Sarawak products for agents to discover.
“We hope that the diverse itinerary planned out for this familiarisation trip will be an eye-opening experience for our partners to explore further business prospects and compelling travel packages that cater to various markets back in Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.
“Aside from leisure travel, Sarawak is also keen on advancing medical tourism. There are immense opportunities for Sarawak’s healthcare development in the future. A huge portion of our foreign patients seeking health treatment here comes from Indonesia; we see this as a tourism opportunity.
“We want to show our Indonesian friends that Sarawak is one of the best places for respite and relaxation. I look forward to also seeing us coming together to focus on expanding medical tourism to build an even stronger Sarawak presence in Indonesia,” he concluded.
Besides participating travel agents, the familiarisation trip was also joined by representative officers from Tourism Malaysia Jakarta, Tourism Malaysia Brunei, Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office Singapore (STATOS) and Bruneian Social influencer GZul.
Forty Sarawak tourism industry players attended the business networking session to network and promote Sarawak products to the agents.
The familiarisation trip itinerary included visits to MULU, an iconic UNESCO World Heritage, Borneo Cultures Museum and Keringkam Gallery, Kuching Wetland Cruise, Kuching Waterfront tour and morning city cycling around Kuching and extensive Kuching food trails.
For more information, visit www.sarawaktourism.com
(Your Stories: Sarawak Tourism Board)
