Targeted marketing crucial to do well in tourism biz

BY SULOK TAWIE

KUCHING: An effective targeted marketing strategy is what is needed for Sarawak to do well in the tourism business in future, emphasised Philip Yong, managing director of Borneo Adventure that specialises in tours and travel.

Yong, 72, former Sarawak Tourism Federation (STF) president, explained that not all tourists come to Sarawak for the same products.

He said that is where the effective targeted marketing strategy comes into play and that it is easy to promote wildlife to the Europeans because they love nature and environment.

“European tourists come to Kuching. We bring a lot of people to Batang Ai, Bako, Semonggok and other tours as well, like going to see frogs.

“Yes, they want to see frogs. Right now, there are about 1,500 foreign nationals in town attending the World Congress on Herpetology (WCH).

“The other (Tuesday) night, there were about 80 of them going to Kubah National Park just to see frogs. There will be more of them going there later,” Yong said.

“You promote frogs as a tourism product to those who want to see frogs. If this is what the people are interested in, then you come in.

“This is why we need targeted marketing. These (participants of the WCH) are nature lovers. That is why we go to the European market because they have the love for nature and the local community as well,” he said.

“What we have done is targeted marketing. This, to me, should be the role of the Sarawak Tourism Board,” he said, adding that European tourists are not really interested in shopping, but they love nature.

Yong said Borneo Adventure is mostly dealing in nature and the company is actually working with the local communities in Batang Ai.

“We bring in tourists to Ulu Batang Ai area because of the environment. It is pristine. The rivers are still very clean and you can see orangutans once in a while.

“We bring in over a RM1 million yearly to the local communities,” he said.

Yong said that most of the tourists that come to Borneo Adventure are from European countries who make their bookings online.

“Things have changed so much. We have our own website. Time has changed, but the tourism products are still the same. But the way to do business has changed.

“Almost 40 per cent of our business is done online. They (tourists) book directly while 60 per cent are through agents. We have offices in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu. The destinations are all over Sarawak,” he added.

He said his company prefers quality over quantity tourists, adding: ”I would rather have 1,000 people who give me RM1 million than having 10,000 people giving me RM1,000.”

“You need less number of people but give quality income. If there are so many people, you are going to lose everything,” he said, citing Barcelona, Spain, as an example when the local people got fed up with the tourists and used water pistols to shoot at the visitors. 

He said tourists from China are also coming to Sarawak with groups who are keen on nature as not every Chinese tourist prefer to go shopping.

“China has such a large population and it really depends on us on what kind of tourists we want from China,” he said.

Yong said tourist arrivals in Sarawak have already reached the pre COVID-19 level, with more visitors coming to Sarawak.

He said during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was virtually no business, not just the tourism but also other business sectors.

However, he said his company managed to go through the pandemic because it has sufficient savings and was able to retain all the staff members.