Tourism in Sarawak

Abstract

Tourism is a rapidly growing industry and although it ranks second to oil in terms of annual earnings globally, it is likely to overtake the oil and arms industries in the next decade or two. Malaysia has been slow to enter the tourism industry as the first few years after Merdeka was devoted to improving the living standards of the people. Only with the slump of commodity prices, was tourism seen as an avenue for improving the country's economy. In line with this, the State Ministry of Tourism was set up in 1985 in Sarawak. With the renewed interest by the government, the private sector has also risen to the challenge and are now more involved in the affairs of the Ministry. There has been an increase of visitors to Malaysia from 3.3 million in 1987 to 3.6 million in 1988 but Sarawak only received about 5% and 6% of the total visitors arrivals in Malaysia. Thus the contribution of the tourism industry to the State GDP is insignificant i.e. less than 1% in the past two years. It is therefore a challenge to both the government and private sector to make the tourism industry an important revenue earner in the State.