Category: Updates

Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) celebrated International Friendship Day at Riverside Secondary and Wellington Primary Schools in Singapore recently with opportunity to highlight Sarawak product experiences to the school’s teachers, students and parents.

Showcasing Culture, Adventure, Nature, Food and Festivals, the focal themes in the Visit Sarawak Campaign, the guests had their first-hand experience in watching cultural stage performances and sampling of food such as Sarawak layer cakes, pepper sweets and tebaloi (sago crackers).

STB Chief Executive Officer, Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor  said “We are currently focusing on different customer segments which include school children, as one of the most distinctive changes in markets over the time is the expansion in the choice of destinations available.”

“It is timely as we are now promoting aggressively our Visit Sarawak Campaign.” she went on.

Singaporean arrival into Sarawak in 2018 stood at 43,734, an increase of 3.69% compared to the previous year.

STB hopes that participation in this event will encourage more teachers and family groups from Singapore to choose Sarawak as one of their future holiday destinations and study trips, taking advantage of the 4 daily direct flights between the two destinations.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Sarawak Tourism Board, Sharzede Datu HJ Salleh Askor, attended the Chengdu Music Cities Convention as a speaker, as part of Sarawak’s music tourism initiatives, which uses Sarawak’s unique sounds to promote Sarawak as a tourism destination.

She presented the future of music in the city of Kuching and throughout Sarawak’s other cities, from the preservation of the cultural music and more modern types of music, to the prominent musical festivals in the state such as the Rainforest World Music Festival which has had a successful 22-year run.

Also presenting was Giacherie Tipik, President and Founder of CatSound.co, an independent non-profit agency based in Kuching. Tipik spoke on his company’s role in bringing Sarawak musical talents to the world stage as well as the work they do on the grounds to nurture talents.

The Music Cities Convention is the largest and most extensive global gathering on the topic of Music Cities, bringing together leaders from governments, academics, music organisations and the music scene to discuss the situation and future of music in cities and their role in the city’s development and identity.

The Village House, situated in the Santubong Peninsular, Kuching, has recently won the 2019 Experts’ Choice Award from TripExpert, an award deliberated upon by a group of journalists and professional travel writers who sift through more than 1.5 million reviews to determine a winner for the year.

The Village House features prominently on the TripExpert website as one of the best hotels in Sarawak, with positive reviews and endorsements from visitors and even travel publishers such as Lonely Planet.

In addition to the Experts’ Choice Award, the hotel is also among the recipients for TripExpert’s Best of Sarawak Award.

Recently, the popular BBC Series, Top Gear, completed their filming assignment in Sarawak’s mountainous Northern Region for its upcoming season.

With Sarawak’s many unique attractions, such as their national parks, pristine rainforests, waterfalls and cave systems, as well as the unique cultural settings portraying local native lifestyles and food, requests from production houses have been very encouraging.

The Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) is pleased to assist local and international production houses in filming series in Sarawak.

STB facilitates an average of 20 to 25 filming series annually, advising production houses looking for interesting locations to film and facilitating permits for that purpose.

Sarawak has hosted high-profile film productions recently, such as the Pekin Express by Eccholine International Line Production from Belgium and “Islands-Earth’s Paradise Isles” by BBC Natural History Unit from UK, as well as an episode of Asia’s Next Top Model, River Monsters, Surviving Borneo with Henry Golding, and Anthony Bourdain’s – Parts Unknown, to name a few.

For more information and request for assistance in applying for filming, please email our communications unit at [email protected].

Two sets of stamps sporting Sarawak themed imagery will be launched on March 15, one of which is the limited edition ‘Visit Sarawak Campaign’ commemorative stamp set with unique imagery designed by the Tourism Board.

Only 400 copies of the commemorative stamps will be available to the public and can be found at the Sarawak Booth number 5058 – 5063 & 5068 – 5073 (Hall 5) at MATTA Fair in PWTC, from March 15 to 17.

The commemorative stamps are accompanied by a special folder featuring some iconic images of Sarawak, with detailed descriptions of the attractions that can be found in Sarawak.

The Board encourages stamp collectors and enthusiasts to come to the booth, where they will receive a stamp set with the purchase a Sarawak package above RM250, or stand a chance to win that stamp set by participating in an Instagram competition at the Sarawak Booth.

Among activities at the booth are a Photo Booth Instagram Contest, puzzle games and Rubik’s cube game.

Aside from games, the Sarawak booth at MATTA will also feature a virtual reality display, musical performances by local Sarawakian band Meruked, food sampling and tuak tasting, as well as ‘Show & Tell’, featuring sago worms, local fruit and pepper plants.

16 Sarawak partners will be attending the Fair, namely Amogha Tours & Travel, Borneo Happy Farm, Borneo Highlands Hornbill Golf & Jungle Club Berhad, Brighton Travel & Tour, CPH Travel Agencies, Great Leap Tours, Greatown Travel Sdn. Bhd., Hotel Grand Continental Kuching, Inter-Continental Travel Centre, Kuching Holidays & Car Rental, Mega Hotel, Miri, Sunshine Joytour Borneo, Tanahmas Hotel Sibu, Tourism & Hospitality Group, SEDC Sarawak, Tropical Adventure Tours & Travel, and Tune Hotel Waterfront Kuching.

There are great deals on offer at the Sarawak booth, with packages as low as RM230 and great discounts up to 30%, offering tour options throughout Sarawak.

The Rainforest World Music Festival’s (RWMF) promotional video has won the Golden City Gate 2019 five-star Award at the ITB Berlin 2019, a leading international annual tourism trade event.

The video entitled “Awakening of the Rainforest” produced by a local production house, Asa Esa won the International Tourism Film and Multimedia category for event category.

The making of the two-minute promotional video was inspired by Mother Nature’s bountiful gift.

Held for the 19^th time the award’s jury session was held on February 12, 2019 with more than 100 entries from 21 countries received for the competition.

“We will be celebrating the festival’s 22^nd edition in 2019 and we hope that the award will be an inspiration for us to move on to make the festival bigger and better this year” CEO of Sarawak Tourism Board, Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor said during the award ceremony.

On hand to receive the award from the President of Golden City Gate, Wolfgang Jo Huschert was the Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports, Datuk Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah at a ceremony held at the Malaysian Pavilion at the Messe Berlin here yesterday.

The Sarawak Tourism Board will be participating in two events in Jiangsu Province in the month of March.

From March 8 to 10, the board will attend the B2B and B2C events at the Suzhou International Travel Fair 2019 (SITF2019), held at the Suzhou International Expo Center.

SITF2019 theme this year is “Quality Culture Travel, Multi Experience”, well in line with the Visit Sarawak Campaign attraction themes of Culture, Adventure, Nature, Food and Festivals, as well as the campaign’s focus on experiential tourism.

Shortly after SITF2019, the Board will be attending the Malaysia Tourism Promotion B2B Seminar in Nanjing on March 12.

20 to 25 Malaysia sellers will be participating I this seminar and B2B table talk sessions, promoting their products to the local agents from Nanjing and Jiangsu Province, as well as the Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong and Xuzhou regions.

As of March 1, the national no-smoking policy in eateries throughout Sarawak will take effect.

For the first six months of implementation, the punishments will be ‘educational’, with officers issuing warning letters to those who smoke in non-smoking areas.

The Indie Video Competition with the theme “Sarawak: More to Discover”, announced their winners recently with Nazmi Nasse Ruddin taking home the grand prize of RM10,000.

First and second runners-up were Chong Ee Vei and Jeremy Emang Jecky, winning RM5,000 and RM3,000, respectively.

Consolation prize winners were Mohammed Alfiani Zizam Adeng and his team, Mohamad Faizuan Mat and his team, and Chai Teck Hua with a prize of RM500 each.

The competition was organised by Sarawak Tourism Federation (STF) in collaboration with Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), and winning entries will be used in digital promotion of Sarawak as a tourism destination.

Sarawak Tourism Board and their travel trade partners will be participating in ITB Berlin from March 6 to 10 at the Messe Berlin.

The Sarawak delegation includes Borneo Adventure Tours & Travel, One Wayang Tour Sdn. Bhd., Ranee Boutique Suites and the Marian Boutique Lodging House.

This year, the Sarawak Booth will be located at the Tourism Malaysia Pavilion, number 26, in front of the Hall 25/26 entrance.

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sport YB Datuk Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah will also be attending ITB Berlin to launch the “Sarawak: More to Discover – Sibu and Central Region”, introducing central Sarawak as a tour destination in Europe.

Malaysia is an Official Partner Country with ITB Berlin 2019.