Boost tourism efforts to attract Chinese tourists, Sibu MP urges S’wak govt

SIBU (Oct 13): Sibu MP Oscar Ling urged the Sarawak government to intensity its efforts in promoting the state’s tourism industry, so as to attract more Chinese tourists.

“Based on data from the federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry, a total of 380,000 Chinese tourists visited Malaysia from December last year to April this year, following the implementation of the visa-free policy.

“Of this number, approximately 110,000 travelled to Sabah, while around 5,000 visited Sarawak,” he said.

Ling said this when speaking to reporters in his office prior to the Malaysian Red Crescent (MRC) Sibu branch’s ‘World First Aid Day 2024’ event here yesterday.

From the figures, he pointed out that it is evident that Sarawak’s tourism industry still needs to enhance its competitiveness.

“Despite the visa-free policy, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Sarawak remains underwhelming.

“Less than two per cent of the total numbers of Chinese tourists visit Sarawak, indicating that the state is not a primary destination for Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia,” he added.

In this regard, he urged the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts to take proactive steps meant to attract more tourists, such as offering visitor packages with hotel discounts and other incentives.

Ling believes that there is currently a surge of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia, and that the Sarawak government should not miss the opportunity of attracting them to visit the state.

Moreover, he pointed out that the Sarawak-Malaysia My Second Home (S-MM2H) programme has a lower threshold as compared to Peninsular Malaysia, providing the state with the potential of becoming an international education centre, so as to attract foreign students to enroll in international schools and universities in Sarawak.

“Malaysia’s English-language education environment is a key reason as to why many Chinese parents are enrolling their children to study in educational institutions here through the MM2H programme,” he added.

Towards this end, Ling hopes that the state government will actively promote tourism and education as economic projects, rather than solely focusing on green energy and high-technology sectors.