Mulu National Park gains more attention

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KUCHING: Unesco World Heritage site Mulu National Park is getting a lot of attention via tourism campaigns and documentaries aired in China and other countries.

Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin said the strategies included a tactical campaign to put Miri as a preferred destination to visit, positioning Miri and Mulu as a twin destination.

“This ongoing campaign was launched in June last year together with MASwings and Tropical Adventure Tours Sdn Bhd in Miri,” he said in reply to a question from Datuk Sebastian Ting (BN-Piasau). Film and movie promotions such as the Chinese movie ‘Blue Tears’ highlighting attractions around Miri and Mulu would be seen by millions in China and other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, Food Trail of Miri was also shown in local television channel targeting domestic and Brunei markets.

“China Central Television 4 (CCTV4) made a documentary on Mulu in July 2016 and was shown in November and December the same year, giving Mulu wide publicity in China,” said Lee, adding that the ministry also promoted Mulu at the Brunei Travel Fair in September this year, the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Kuala Lumpur and Kuching.

There were also familiarisation trips to Miri and Mulu with agents from Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Australia, as well as a visit from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) honorary secretary-general last year. Mulu National Park was also presented as a paper at the Hebei International Tourism Conference in Baoding, Hebei Province, China last year.

Currently, Mulu is accessible by air via MASwings twice daily from Miri, four times weekly from Kuching and four times weekly from Kota Kinabalu. Lee added the more adventurous ones could take four-wheel drive journey from Miri through Long Bedian to Long Terawan, followed by a two-hour longboat ride to Mulu.

“The ministry is looking into the feasibility of improving accessibility to Mulu using the existing logging road from Long Bedian-Long Terawan-Long Iman and two-hour boat ride to Mulu National Park headquarters.”

This route runs through existing logging roads. To upgrade the roads to R3 standard, Public Works Department (JKR) has estimated that it would cost RM1.5 billion.