What does the future hold for tourism in Sarawak?

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The homestay.

SOMETIMES statistics on its own cannot give you a true picture or tell you the full story of exactly what’s happening on the ground.

Take for instance the following statistics that I have culled from the official websites of both states’ Tourism Boards. For the entire year of 2017, the stats showed that Sabah had 3.684 million bona-fide tourists; and Sarawak attracted for the same period 4.856 million!

These stats on their own would appear to tell a story that indeed there are more tourists coming into Sarawak than Sabah. But the reality of it is very much different.

The writer (left) with BBC film crew Alastair and Georgina and local guide Veno.

My suspicion is that the Sarawak stats included those who came over the border from Brunei, Kalimantan Borneo and Sabah. If Sabah were to include (which I suspect they didn’t) those coming in from the Sulu islands in southern Philippines and across the Indonesian border near Tawau their figures could easily have doubled as well.

Suffice it to say that if one were to walk down the streets of Kota Kinabalu and in Kuching, just say Gaya Street and Main Bazaar respectively, one can easily tell which state attracted the most tourists and visitors from elsewhere in Malaysia. KK (Kota Kinabalu) would win hands down.

I have worked in the film location services industry since 1987, a good 31 years; during which time I have seen the growth (or otherwise) of the tourism industries in both Sabah and Sarawak.

For this article I will only focus on one specific attraction in each area and describe what I have seen and experienced at first hand. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.

I was just in Mulu this week. For the first time I stayed at a very nice homestay operated by a most friendly and experienced Kelabit couple in their 50s – it is sited very near the Mulu airstrip and a stone’s throw away from the main road. Their rates are between RM35 to RM80 per night for very clean rooms, washing areas and they even operate a kitchen and bar counter; beers were RM7 per can and bottled water RM5 per 1 litre. They’ve been operating for about five years and very successfully too!

The amazing thing about this nice little homestay is that they have to collect and store their own water and operate their own generator for electricity. They’re only 20m from the main trunk road to the Mulu airstrip. The road leading into their homestay is unpaved and there are pools of water in huge potholes every time it rains. This kind of scenario is repeated throughout Mulu, and indeed throughout the length and breadth of Sarawak.

At the other extreme is the Marriott Hotel which had started in the 1980s as the RIHGA Royal Hotel – everyone knows who the owners are. They charge around RM360 per room and their beers cost RM36 per glass. They have their own electricity and water supply.

In Sabah I had stayed at the Danum Valley at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge. The experience was quite incredible – it was a full package deal – you pay one sum for everything; room, meals and it’s all in. The lodgings were comfortable, the views were spectacular and the service was impeccable.

Homestays are very common too throughout the length and breadth of Sabah – indeed way back in the 1980s when they first started mushrooming; homestays were still rare novelties in Sarawak. It was only in the last 10 years or so that we have seen a mini-boom in the number of Sarawakian homestays. It is a very good thing as backpacking tourists on budgets are always on the lookout for such places to stay – after all, they only need a clean bed and a hot shower to bunk in for the night after a long day out hiking and adventuring.

If one were to compare the tourist attractions (or in the lingo of the trade – tourism products) both Sarawak and Sabah have their own uniquely different places and items to interest the general and the niche tourist.

Sarawak has the orang utans (Semenggoh and Matang Wildlife Sanctuary); Bako and Kubah National Parks; Turtle Islands (Satang and Talang-Talang); Damai,Santubong, Siar, Pandan and Tanjong Lobang beaches; longhouses up the Skrang, Lemanak, Rejang; the Kelabit highlands of Bario and Ba Kelalan and of course, the Mulu Caves!

Sabah in turn attracts with Mount Kinabalu; the Sepilok Orang Utan sanctuary; Sipadan and Mabul diving resorts; the waterlands of the Kinabatangan, the Danum Valley and Maliau Basin.

In my opinion the attractions in Sabah have been better developed than those in Sarawak. In terms of progress and modernity Sabah is at least 10 years ahead of us. Despite the official numbers I dare say that for every one tourist coming into Sarawak, 10 would go to Sabah.

So what has gone wrong with us here?

Connectivity is the name of the game. We do not have the flights coming in from strategic airports like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta and any part of China or Japan. Without flights, we cannot get the numbers.

Our tourism products are not properly nor fully developed. We do not have enough trained tour guides; mini-vans and coaches. We have very limited inbound tour operators here as well. In Sabah they have over 700 tour operators – how many do we have here?

Our attractions are not properly developed – take a look at a prime location like Bako National Park – how many rooms are there in total? In Mulu where the bulk of the tourists venture – how many lodges, homestays and 2-star hotels are there? How has the Tourism Board or Ministry assisted or aided them in promoting them and to ensure that they have a decent product to sell?

In this day and age, the tourist dollar is almighty – every country on Earth aims to make its tourism industry a cash cow in the near future – be it next year, five or 10 years down the road. We here in Sarawak had our start as early as in the 1980s but even as recently as 2000 I heard talk that the annual budget for the state Tourism Board was slashed for some odd reason(s)! That was indeed a sacrilege – that’s like committing ‘hara-kiri’ or ‘seppuku’ – throwing yourself on your own sword.

Unfortunately at the current rate of development, our tourism industry still appears to me to have a rather bleak and unexciting future ahead – when will the powers that be wake up to this sad and tragic fact?