Bimp-Eaga tourism to pick up pace
Win-win: We want to achieve ... a concept of sharing in tourism, says Sarawak Tourism Board president Wee (R).
Monday, December 3, 2007
Sarawak spearheads move to attract more tourists to region home to 50 million
IF THE Sarawak tourism board's initiative is successful, there will be more tourism packages within the Bimp-Eaga area.
President of the Sarawak Tourism Federation, Wee Hong Seng, in an exclusive interview with The Brunei Times in Kuching said that the Sarawak Toursim Board is taking a more pro-active stance to enhance tourism in this region.
Speaking at the relaunch of the Brunei-Kuching air route on Saturday, he said:
"We want to achieve what we call a concept of sharing in tourism which will benefit all countries in the Bimp Eaga and if we cannot team up with all four Bimp-Eaga countries, we can at least team up three (Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia)."
The Bimp-Eaga, which stands for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philipines in the East Asian growth area, covers an area of 1.54 million sq km and is home to about 50 million people.
He continued that when Sarawak took over as the tourism cluster chairman, they have been pushing for more packages within the Bimp-Eaga area,which, he said, will be finalised at the next Bimp-Eaga meeting.
The president pointed out that this is being done through the establishment of the Borneo package and the recent inclusion of Pontianak, the capital of Kalimantan which will promote not only Kalimantan but also Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei Darussalam.
"We launched the Pontianak packages in July last year to to go through Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak," he said.
The president also said that introduction of the Brunei- Kuching Flight will give tourism in the area a big boost.
"The new connection will help reduce the Borneo Tour travel time from the projected 14 days to 10 days," he said. "Of course, we have provided other alternatives to air-travel, those who prefer land transport can take the new band Borneo Highway which has made road travel significantly easier and faster."
In connection with this, he also revealed that the National Tourism Council Malaysia and the car rental association of Malaysia is introducing the motoring tourism which will benefit everyone.
Wee admitted that in the past "there had been a lot of talk but people have not actually, shall we say, activated the whole thing". He was confident all that was about to change with the initiatives taken by Sarawak.
Fresh out of the third Bimp-Eaga Travel Exchange 2007, which Brunei also participated in, he pointed how support from other countries such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, China and many others show that the buzz created by the Bimp-Eaga tour package has been very well received.
"Basically for us, Bimp-Eaga, our aim lies not in which country can attract more but in making it work as a package through combination of efforts and synthesising whatever we can," he said.
The Brunei Times
IF THE Sarawak tourism board's initiative is successful, there will be more tourism packages within the Bimp-Eaga area.
President of the Sarawak Tourism Federation, Wee Hong Seng, in an exclusive interview with The Brunei Times in Kuching said that the Sarawak Toursim Board is taking a more pro-active stance to enhance tourism in this region.
Speaking at the relaunch of the Brunei-Kuching air route on Saturday, he said:
"We want to achieve what we call a concept of sharing in tourism which will benefit all countries in the Bimp Eaga and if we cannot team up with all four Bimp-Eaga countries, we can at least team up three (Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia)."
The Bimp-Eaga, which stands for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philipines in the East Asian growth area, covers an area of 1.54 million sq km and is home to about 50 million people.
He continued that when Sarawak took over as the tourism cluster chairman, they have been pushing for more packages within the Bimp-Eaga area,which, he said, will be finalised at the next Bimp-Eaga meeting.
The president pointed out that this is being done through the establishment of the Borneo package and the recent inclusion of Pontianak, the capital of Kalimantan which will promote not only Kalimantan but also Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei Darussalam.
"We launched the Pontianak packages in July last year to to go through Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak," he said.
The president also said that introduction of the Brunei- Kuching Flight will give tourism in the area a big boost.
"The new connection will help reduce the Borneo Tour travel time from the projected 14 days to 10 days," he said. "Of course, we have provided other alternatives to air-travel, those who prefer land transport can take the new band Borneo Highway which has made road travel significantly easier and faster."
In connection with this, he also revealed that the National Tourism Council Malaysia and the car rental association of Malaysia is introducing the motoring tourism which will benefit everyone.
Wee admitted that in the past "there had been a lot of talk but people have not actually, shall we say, activated the whole thing". He was confident all that was about to change with the initiatives taken by Sarawak.
Fresh out of the third Bimp-Eaga Travel Exchange 2007, which Brunei also participated in, he pointed how support from other countries such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, China and many others show that the buzz created by the Bimp-Eaga tour package has been very well received.
"Basically for us, Bimp-Eaga, our aim lies not in which country can attract more but in making it work as a package through combination of efforts and synthesising whatever we can," he said.
The Brunei Times
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