Speaking exclusively with T3 at the official handover ceremony of Routes Asia 2014 in Mumbai, Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Abang Haji Openg, Tourism Minister of Sarawak said, “We are working closely with airlines for brining people in. Connectivity was the issue which needed to be solved and it is solved now. We are also working closely with Tourism Malaysia to promote Sarawak in the Indian market. We did not promote ourselves aggressively before in India because we felt that our infrastructure was not ready. Now, our infrastructure is ready and India has now become our target market. This is the reason I visited India twice in last 6 months. My objective is to position Sarawak as a tourism destination as well as to understand the requirements of the Indian market.”
GVK’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai recently handed the event over to Kuching, Sarawak the host destination for Routes Asia 2014. “We are indeed grateful to Routes for giving us the opportunity to be associated with such a prestigious event. This is a great honour for Sarawak to be highlighted among prominent airlines and airports fraternity at this important event,” he added.
Talking about the latest initiatives taken by his government on infrastructure front, the Minister said that Sarawak is now seeing development of a number of 5-star and boutique hotels to cater to visitors’ requirements from emerging markets including India. “We are also upgrading our National Parks,” he said and added that Sarawak is situated on the island of Borneo which is home to the world’s oldest tropical rainforests and abundant in wildlife.
Sarawak Tourism is also exploring possibility to offer easy flight connectivity to Indian travellers. “We are exploring the possibility to have air connectivity between India and Sarawak. First of all, we are talking to Malaysian Airlines. As Singapore is nearer to us and we would be talking to Singapore Airlines to establish the connectivity. There is a possibility for Singapore Airlines to fly Kuching direct in view of the open sky policy. We hope to offer good flight connectivity to the Indian market in future,” he said.
Sarawak received four million inbound tourists in 2012. “Our main source markets are Singapore, Australia and Europe and we are now looking at developing Sarawak in the Indian market,” he added.
Commenting on Routes Asia 2014 going to Sarawak, P Manoharan, Director, Tourism Malaysia- India, said, “It is an excellent opportunity for us to showcase Sarawak as a tourist destination not only for trade but for and consumers. The feedback we got from Sarawak Tourism Board states that a lot of Indian started visiting Sarawak. Even though it is it eco related destination, Sarawak is an apt destination for family holidays. It offers experiential holidays in Malaysia.”
