YMCA Camp Resort to transform to meet aspirations of Generation Y

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Lau (centre) and Dr Yap exchange documents after signing the contract.

Lau (centre) and Dr Yap exchange documents after signing the contract.

SIBU: YMCA Camp Resort at Kastuna Road (off KM33 Oya Road) will be transformed to meet the aspirations of 21st century youths, more commonly known as Generation Y.

YMCA Sibu under the leadership of Temengong Vincent Lau Lee Ming has engaged a team of professionals called Maps Camp Training and Consultancy or Maps Camptac to roll out various new activities and programmes.

Under an agreement signed yesterday, Maps Camptac is contracted to run the resort for a year from Jan 1 next year.

Lau signed for YMCA Sibu while Maps Camptac was represented by its director Dr Yap Heng Kai.

According to Lau, the resort was the brainchild of past president the late Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew.

It was set up in 1995 as an important investment feature of YMCA Sibu that was to have facilities for participants to hold various activities.

“But, our resort was not fully utilised over the years despite its ideal location surrounded in tropical forests,” Lau lamented.

He said they had then realised that there was a need to upgrade its facilities and to get professional people to run the resort.

“Over the last two years, we have invited members of our sister clubs in USA and Japan to visit our camp resort and suggest improvements that were required.

“They gave us good feedback and useful pointers,” he recalled.

Lau said contracting out the running of the resort to Dr Yap was the outcome and also the result of follow-up of visits by YMCA members from elsewhere.

To start off, the contract is for one year, and Lau said he expects renewal of the contract in time to come.

“Maps Camptac is a professional company with 10 years of experience in running a resort,” Lau noted.

According to Dr Yap, his company is operating two large campsites in Selangor and Johore Baharu, serving a total of 20,000 campers every year.

With a team of very experienced professionals, Dr Yap believed they would be able to reach out to meet the needs of Generation Y who are always looking out for challenges and highend enjoyment.

“The resort will be refurbished, restructured and rebranded. And we’ll roll out challenging activities, making use of the beautiful natural surroundings,” he said, adding that they were looking at young people not only in Sibu but throughout Sarawak.

YMCA Camp Resort has hotel rooms, chalets and dormitories, and can cater for up to 350 campers at any one time.