KUCHING, Feb 21 — Sarawak registered 319,604 tourist arrivals last month, state Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Hamzah disclosed today.

He said it was a whopping 453.62 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

In January 2022, Sarawak registered only 72,331 tourist arrivals. “For last month alone, Sarawak tourism receipt was RM809.37 million, compared to RM162.89 million for the corresponding period of last year,” he told reporters after launching the inaugural Borneo International Garden Expo 2023 at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching here.

“We are back to the pre-Covid pandemic period as tourists are coming in after the opening of the state borders in April last year,” he added. He said the bulk of foreign arrivals registered last month was from Brunei (104,653), followed by Indonesia (44,090), Singapore (4,703), the Philippines (2,975) and China (1,900).

“The number of visitors from China is quite low as we know that they have a little problem getting out.

“But we will see an upsurge of visitors from China in the next few months,” he said.

He said the 316,604 arrivals in January this year breached the 250,000-mark projected for the monthly arrivals for this year.

“It goes beyond our expectations. Looking at the kind of events that we are going to hold this year, I am confident that we can hit the three-million mark or even more,” he said.

He said that before the pandemic, Sarawak registered 4.6 million arrivals in 2019.

“Our target for 2020 was five million arrivals, but unfortunately, it was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

He said Sarawak, being a safe place, is among the reasons for the increase in tourist arrivals.

“We are also aggressively promoting Sarawak as a destination known for its biodiversity and green environment,” he said.

He said he will lead a tourism promotion delegation to the ITB Berlin, Germany, from March 4 and 13 this year.

“We are going to have our own booth at the ITB Berlin, next to the Malaysian pavilion. This shows how serious we are in promoting Sarawak,” he said.

He said ITB Berlin is the second largest tourism show at the international level.