Abd Karim: Admission fees no issue, museum still averaging 700 visitors daily

0

(From left) Hii, Sii, Abdul Karim, Zuraini, and Dayang Morzanah cut ribbons during the soft-opening ceremony. – Photo by Roystein Emmor

KUCHING (Aug 9): The Borneo Cultures Museum has received an average of 700 visitors daily this month despite the introduction of admission fees, said Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

The Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister said he did not expect such numbers since visitors had to pay to enter from Aug 1.

“We got an average of about 700 visitors daily and the figure will increase to an average of 1,500 visitors per day over the weekend,” he told a press conference after officiating at the soft opening of the museum’s fine dining restaurant yesterday.

Abdul Karim said the museum has so far collected an average of about RM10,000 a day.

He pointed out the museum had other facilities that could also be rented out such as the auditorium and exhibition space, which could provide satisfactory financial returns to the museum.

Since the opening its doors to visitors on March 9, Abdul Karim said 386,753 people have visited the second largest museum in Southeast Asia.

He said the Natural History Museum will only open to the public in about a year and a half from now as a great deal of effort is needed to arrange and organise the artefacts and historical items.

On the fine dining restaurant which offers Asian-Western fusion cuisine, Abdul Karim said it has its own separate entrance and operating hours.

There is also a cafeteria located within the building.

Among those present at the event were Abdul Karim’s wife Datin Zuraini Abdul Jabbar, the ministry’s permanent secretary Hii Chang Kee, State Museum Department deputy director Dayang Morzanah Awang Haddy, and Nex Vision F&B (BCM) Sdn Bhd managing director Damien Sii.