KUCHING: Homestay operators in Sarawak registered with the Tourism Ministry earned RM1.6 million last year, up 64 per cent, compared with a revenue of RM978,703.62 recorded in 2011.
The ministry’s State Assistant Director Radiah Muhammad said the figure could have been higher if all 418 operators submitted their financial reports.
“Until the end of last year, some homestay operators did not submit their financial reports to us.
“We will continue to check with homestay operators to find out their problems as they could risk being deregistered should they fail to submit their reports for three consecutive years,” she told Bernama.
Radiah also said homestay facilities were gaining popularity among tourists to Sarawak with 14,284 of them taking up packages offered compared with 12,612 bookings recorded in 2011.
From the total, 3,274 were foreign tourists while the remaining 11,010 were domestic vacationers, she said.
With a total of 28 homestay projects, she said Sarawak had the highest number of such projects registered with the ministry.
“The number will not remain as we have received several new applications to start homestay projects,” she added. — Bernama