SIBU: Local tourism players believe food can be a tourism product that will put this riverine town on the world map.
Roy Ting
Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) Sarawak Chapter liaison officer for Sibu Roy Ting expressed this confidence when he said that local delicacies could be attractions for overseas and local food lovers to visit Sibu.
He was commenting on the 1Malaysia Fabulous Food Carnival, set to mesmerise visitors with its array of hard-to-resist and mouth-watering delicacies, beginning next month.
“I am happy to see that such event is organised to create awareness of local food and I hope organisers can roll out more promotions in future to better attract tourists.
“It is not sufficient to depend on local tourists alone, we need to target foreign tourists to boost our tourism industry so to speak,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
The 1Malaysia Fabulous Food Carnival is set to roll from Dec 11 till Jan 2 next year and will showcase various types of local delicacies.
Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) Sibu executive Rudy Anoi echoed Ting’s opinion that besides places of interest, food can also be a crowd puller.
“It is a norm that whenever tourists visit any place in the world, they would look for local food,” he clarified, adding that food lovers are a curious lot and eager to check out new tastes.
Rudy also expressed confidence that the event would be another promotional tool to place Sibu on the world map.
“In television, we notice that there are more programmes about food coming up these days. This can directly promote our place too,” he added.
Among the main items chefs will prepare are chicken rice, satay and roti canai.