Wednesday, November 19, 2014

A more holistic approach to stimulate Sarawak tourism industry


THE Ministry of Tourism will be taking a more holistic approach to stimulate the industry’s growth by strengthening local niche events and diversifying their marketing strategy.

As of September this year, the state recorded around 3.5 million visitors, out of which 1.9
million were international visitors while the rest domestic arrivals.

“Through various exciting events and more direct flights into Sarawak, we can expect these numbers to increase by next year,” Sarawak Tourism Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said during his ministry’s winding-up speech at the DUN yesterday.

He revealed that the 11.2 per cent rise in visitor arrival to Sarawak this year could be credited to the Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) 2014 and Visit Sarawak Year 2013/14.

Other major platforms to promote the state’s tourism potential consisted of public relations, online and electronic communications and public events within Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam.

Throughout the two-year campaign, there were 962 airtime advertisement spots on TV1, TV2, TV3 as well as short documentaries slotted on iTV Astro.

“Promotional campaigns on VMY2014 are published in magazines and books such as Reader’s Digest Asia, Nikkei Business magazine, golf magazine and various in-flight magazines.

“The state is also promoted through short documentaries aired on various television channels such as National Geographic, Discovery Channel and news networks like BBC and CNN,” he said.

These digital and virtual advertising initiatives have put Malaysia and Sarawak on countless websites, travel apps, YouTube, Facebook and many other social media distributions.

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