Abdul Karim beats a drum to launch the Tribe Homegrown Incentivised Packages. With him are Tourism, Arts and Culture Assistant Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting (third right), BCCK executive director Tan Sri Datuk Amar Wilson Baya Dandot (second left) and others.
KUCHING: The business events industry in Sarawak should focus on organising hybrid and local events, as national and international in-persons events would not take place anytime soon due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, said state Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
He said one of the government’s ways to encourage and support more locals to plan homegrown business events is by creating incentive packages such as the Tribe Homegrown Incentivised Packages for local and hybrid events.
“This is our way of providing industry support before the borders reopen, hopefully by the end of this year or early next year,” he said when launching the packages by Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak), at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.
Abdul Karim said through these packages, the industry partners can craft new and amplify existing advertising, marketing and promotion activities.
With so much potential from Sarawak’s destination and a grant available, this is their chance to make something remarkable happen, he added.
“For national and international planners, we are currently reviving our national and international incentivised packages launched in July 2020.
“We want to give better support for hybrid events and accommodate the planner’s latest needs,” Abdul Karim said.
During the event, BESarawak officials explained that the Tribe Homegrown Incentivised Packages come in two categories namely Tribe Homegrown Convention, and Tribe Homegrown Corporate Meetings/Corporate Incentives.
“The Convention category is a collaboration between the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak and BESarawak to help develop the local tourism, arts and culture scene via homegrown conventions.
“There is also the Corporate Meetings and Corporate Incentives category which encourages corporate organisations and destination management companies, travel agents and incentive houses, among other subsectors, to organise and host such business events,” said one official.
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim said even though Sarawak’s visitor and delegate arrivals fell to an all-time low last year due to the pandemic, he remained confident the state would recover and regain its competitive edge soon.
“So far we are estimating at least 25,346 delegates coming to Sarawak soon with 81,437 delegate days in total.
“This is worth an estimated RM112.9 million in direct delegate expenditure, with at least RM12.5 million in tax revenue and 16,346 job placements in the pipeline,” he said, adding Sarawak had also achieved its 2020 Key Performance Index by securing 95 business events worth RM208.8 million in total economic impact.