KUCHING: The four councils involved in the Padawan-Bau-Serian-Lundu (PBSL) tourism project are still waiting for the report from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) before they can come up with a tourism masterplan.
Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang said it has been two years since UiTM started to conduct the products inventory survey for the Joint Tourism Committee comprising MPP and the district councils of Bau, Serian and Lundu.
“All the four councils funded the study to be conducted by UiTM, and on behalf of MPP, I hope UiTM can speed up the report,” he told reporters during the handing- over of Skuduk-Chupak Recreational Park to the Gua Raya management committee at MPP office in Kota Padawan yesterday.
He added that MPP has been working together with UiTM for the study, which ultimately will result in a masterplan that enables the four councils to work jointly on a tourism package spread over the areas under jurisdiction of these four councils in the state’s southern region.
“The package may be something like this – the tourist starts the day with breakfast at 10th Mile (Kota Padawan), and then exploring the nature in Serian and have lunch there, and then tea break in Bau before spending the night in Lundu,” he said.
UiTM was engaged by PBSL to conduct the study in 2012, after the four councils accepted a challenge by Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to create a package to entertain tourists and to showcase the best each council has to offer in terms of tourism products.
Taib had issued the challenge during a Padawan Day event earlier that year, as he told the four councils to find ways to exploit tourism potential in their respective areas.
Based on 2012 newspaper reports, the PBSL was supposed to come up with the masterplan this year so that they could start producing significant tourism products.