MP: Sarawak must pivot towards quality tourism markets

SIBU (Jan 21): The Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) should place greater emphasis on attracting tourists from high-value markets such as China, Japan, South Korea, Europe, the United States and the Middle East to generate stronger foreign exchange earnings and stimulate the local economy, said Sibu MP Oscar Ling.

Ling said from January to November last year, visitors arrival from these regions totalled only slightly over 160,000, including just over 3,000 from the Middle East.

While official figures showed Sarawak recorded nearly five million visitor arrivals last year, he noted more than 1.4 million were repeated cross-border visits from Brunei, while return visits from Indonesia exceeded 630,000.

“This was followed by just over 60,000 visitors from China and about 57,000 from Singapore.
“Arrivals from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah were close to 2 million, while tourists from Europe and the United States numbered only slightly over 66,000.

“Overall, visitors from China, Japan, South Korea, as well as Europe and the US, totalled only about 160,000,” he said in a statement.

Ling explained that many visitors from Brunei and Indonesia were primarily cross-border travellers rather than genuine tourists, with some transiting through Sarawak for other purposes, such as Bruneians travelling via Miri to catch flights to Peninsular Malaysia.

Although Sarawak’s tourism industry has shown some improvement in recent years, Ling said progress remained limited, with many international tourists still choosing Peninsular Malaysia as their main destination.

“This area still requires strengthening, particularly in destination development and promotion by the Sarawak government,” he said.

Beyond conventional tourism, Ling suggested Sarawak should also develop medical tourism and position itself as an international education hub.

“With its low cost of living, social and political stability, as well as well-developed Chinese and English education systems, Sarawak is well-placed to attract overseas students,” Ling added.

He also proposed leveraging the ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ programme to attract retirees from Europe, the United States and Japan, creating opportunities to develop a ‘silver economy’.

“This would generate spillover growth, especially in healthcare and medical services,” he said, urging the state government to formulate a more comprehensive tourism blueprint encompassing education and retired-based tourism.