KUCHING: Marketing will be the key to help the Sarawak tourism sector grow further as the land of hornbills is packed with unique tourist attractions and rich resources.
Sarawak’s total tourist arrival has finally breached the four million mark last year, recording 4,069,023 – as indicated by the figures from the Immigration Department of Sarawak.
According to USCI Communications Sdn Bhd managing director, Gracie Geikie, “The growth in Sarawak’s tourism sector is comfortable. I would look at growth as in yield rather than numbers. I believe bringing in 50 tourists staying two weeks is better than 100 people staying one night.”
Geikie noted during an interview with The Borneo Post that the impact would be different, adding that the former would definitely bring in more revenue to the destination.
She added that Sarawak provided more of an experiential holiday, “Kuching is not the ultra city with many skyscrapers and Ferris wheels. We are also not a shopping haven.”
Instead, Geikie pointed out that the state would be a potential ethnobotany destination yet, this was one area that was least researched and least marketed as a tourism product.
“We have abundant natural resources with our jungles and national parks. In addition to that, we have 27 tribal groups making us rich in culture as well. What we need now is more marketing and promotion.
“We have a gem sitting there waiting to be better discovered,” she explained.
The managing director believed that everyone should play a part in helping the industry forward and that it required a concerted effort from all sectors.
“It is all about marketing at this point and it should be an ongoing effort. It does not mean that when you are better known and popular than you can stop. You have to keep the momentum going,” she said.
56 Hotel’s director of sales and marketing, Trescott Gregory concurred, adding that Sarawak had all the resources available but in order to better sell the products, the players themselves would have to go and experience the tourist spots themselves.
“Those involved in the industry should have a better understanding of what we have to offer. In order to do that, they would need to see it for themselves.
“Another important thing to help the industry forward would be marketing strategies. Forget the old ways of doing things. If the way we market ourselves and our tourist attractions for the past ten years have not been working, we need to change it,” he opined.
Gregory believed that all parties involved, such as the hoteliers, airlines, travel agents and the Sarawak Tourism Board, should work together to achieve a common goal – a more robust tourism industry.