Winners and organising committee members of Malaysia Airlines (UK) Travel Agent Rainforest World Music Festival FAM competition (from left) Barclay, Heslop, Burgess, Barber, Malaysia Airlines Berhad UK head of leisure (tour operators) Steve Bresh and social media analyst Muhammed Ikhwan Affandi, Dodds and Lu.
KUCHING: The ‘Cat City’ Kuching is not just a clean city with a well-maintained cityscape, but also makes tourists feel safe.
For Kaboo Travel senior consultant Natalie Barclay, Kuching was definitely bigger than she had expected.
“This is my first time in Sarawak. After being here for several days, I would really love to come back for a personal visit in the near future,” Barclay said. She was one of the five winners of the Malaysia Airlines (UK) Travel Agent Rainforest World Music Festival FAM competition.
Organised by Malaysia Airlines in collaboration with Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), the competition was open to frontline travel sellers working for a travel agency or tour operators.
It was arranged in conjunction with the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) 2016 that took place from Aug 5 to 7, offering winners the chance to go on a five-day, four-night familiarisation trip in Kuching.
Other winners made up of various travel agents included Travelbag Cheltenham sales consultant Rebecca Dodds, Sharna Burgess of Flight Centre Birmingham, Samantha Heslop of Gazelle Travel and Ann Barber of Travel Counsellor.
“We were fascinated by the proboscis monkeys at Bako National Park,” said Heslop. “Finally, we managed to see them. Their nose was the answer to the question that won us the trip.”
The trip took place from Aug 3 to 8, with the winners flying on one of Malaysia Airlines’ double-daily flights onboard an A380 Superjumbo from London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur before proceeding on to Kuching.
In Sarawak, the winners took part in the Rainforest World Music Festival’s workshops and experienced some of the best in world music together with thousands of other visitors from Malaysia and around the world.
Other places they visited where they could enjoy some of Sarawak’s native flora and fauna included the Kuching Heritage Walking Tour, Semenggoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center and Annah Rais.
According to STB long haul market manager Michael Lu, the competition received a good response from UK travel professionals, receiving over 200 entries during the one-month campaign.
“There is a plan to work with MAS to package a similar tour programme next year,” he said, adding that the UK is Sarawak’s biggest long-haul market segment and the state received 24,725 visitors from the UK in 2015.
“For June 2016 year to date (YTD), there has been a positive 14.2 per cent increase in arrivals.”
The competition was organised in partnership with Travel Weekly UK and Grand Margherita Hotel Kuching to reach out to a country audience that is home to the world’s largest Greenfield music festival, The Glastonbury Music Festival.