Sarawak's Foreign Visitor Arrivals Up 23 Per Cent in 2012 First Quarter

KUCHING (Sarawak,Malaysia), June 15 (Bernama) -- The number of visitors to Sarawak, the largest state in Malaysia, continued to increase in the first quarter of this year, with foreign arrivals alone registering a 23 per cent rise while total arrivals saw a 16 per cent jump, according to Federal Deputy Tourism Minister Dr James Dawos Mamit. He said he was happy to note that it showed a similar pattern of an increase of 16 per cent in the overall tourist arrivals to the state in 2011 in comparison to the previous year. "It is my hope that the positive trend will continue, especially due to golf tourism and other tourism-related activities, which is in line with the government's efforts to attract more long-stay and high-yield tourists to the country," he said at the World Amateur Inter-team Golf Championship 2012 (WAITGC) prize presentation for the fourth preliminary round here last night. Twenty teams participated in the fourth qualifying round, eight of them from Australia, six from Brunei, three from Malaysia, two from Singapore and one team from Thailand. This year's championship, which attracted more than 500 participants, was held at six golf courses, in Selangor, Sabah, Johor, Sarawak, Melaka and Kuala Lumpur/Putrajaya, and will conclude with the grand final in Perak from Nov 6 to 8. Dawos said that in Sarawak, the 19th season of the home-grown event not only tested the participants' golfing skills but also encouraged them to discover the state's rich biodiversity assets such as the Semenggoh Orang Utan Sanctuary, which is easily accessible from the city centre, as well as local culture and delectable cuisines. -- BERNAMA