KUCHING: Sarawak serves as the best location for eco-tourism and eco-based sports as it has a wide variety of locations which it can offer to visitors.
With the Federal Government’s attention given towards golf tourism as the key priority projects to increase the nation’s tourism contribution, Sarawak must take the opportunity to promote its golf courses to the world.
According to Natural Resources and Environment Deputy Minister Datuk Dr James Dawos Mamit, the World Amateur Inter-Team Golf Championship (WAITAG) is a great platform to materialise the plan and lure in more visitors to Malaysia.
“Last year, golf tourism recorded RM304 million compared to RM296 million in 2012. Whereas this year, Malaysia aims to push the figure to RM310 million,” said Dawos.
He was speaking at the 5th round of WAITGC prize presentation ceremony at Grand Margherita Hotel yesterday.
On a related matter, Dawos said the eight golf courses available in Sarawak must be capitalised for golf tourism promotion efforts as he believed that the courses are challenging and offered world class facilities.
“WAITGC is an important common ground event and has been around for 21 years. Such event is important as it will demonstrate Malaysia not only as a tourism destination but also a place of high value,” he said.
“The green rainforest, the mangroves forest, beautiful beaches with sandy coasts are scenic places all over Sarawak which we must share and promote to visitors,” he added.
The four-day fifth qualifying round of the annual WAITGC organised by Tourism Malaysia saw the participation of 20 teams, with two each from Indonesia and Australia, five teams each from Brunei and Malaysia and six from Singapore.