SARAWAK TOURISM GETS RM323 MILLION FROM STATE BUDGET NEXT YEAR

KUCHING, Dec 2 (Bernama) -- The Sarawak Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts has been allocated RM323 million under the 2026 State Budget as the industry continues to record strong performance with RM10.22 billion in tourism receipts between January and October this year.

The State Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, said from this amount, RM129 million would be utilised for development expenditure, while RM194 million as operating expenditure.

“This budget is crucial for the Ministry to continue developing relevant infrastructures, strengthening tourism marketing and organising events in ensuring the advancement of tourism, creative industry and performing arts in 2026,” he said when winding up the debate on the state budget for his ministry at the State Assembly sitting here today.

Abdul Karim said the encouraging performance of the sector this year reflected Sarawak’s resilient tourism recovery, with 4.01 million visitor arrivals recorded in the first ten months despite global geopolitical challenges.

“Tourism continues to stimulate Sarawak’s economy. The increase in visitor arrivals has translated into strong spillover benefits for local communities, hospitality services and related sectors,” he said.

Abdul Karim said ASEAN remains the state’s strongest market, led by Brunei Darussalam with more than 1.3 million arrivals and Indonesia with 583,568 visitors.

“Other top contributors were China with 58,822 visitors, Singapore (52,406 visitors) and the Philippines (39,284 visitors).

“Domestic tourism continues to be relevant with a total of 1,769,561 visitors from other parts of Malaysia, constituting 44.1 per cent of the total visitors,” he said.

He also noted that Sarawak is expected to experience further growth in visitor arrivals in the coming years, following the continuous marketing, diversification of tourism products, enhanced air connectivity and stronger digital promotions.

“A large proportion of the world's future tourists will originate from countries within the Asia Pacific, generating an average of 17 million additional international arrivals every year, with China, Korea and Japan as the key drivers of this outbound demand,” he added.

-- BERNAMA