KUCHING: Sarawak needs to come up with new and innovative approaches to continually grow and sustain its competitive edge in the tourism industry. Players in the industry should improve their products quality and unique visitors’ experiences, said Malaysia Productivity Council (MPC) board member Datuk Abang Abdul Karim Tun Openg. He expressed confidence that creation of quality tourism products and experiences of visitors, as well as strengthening the productivity and competitiveness of the sector, would ensure the growth of the industry to remain vibrant and sustainable.
“As global competition to attract tourists and investments intensify, and visitors become more discerning in their travel choices, players in the industry must also innovate,” he said when officiating the inaugural three-day state-level Showcasing Tourism Products (STP) Sarawak yesterday. The event is jointly organised by Tourism Productivity Nexus and Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) in collaboration with the state Tourism, Arts, Culture Youth and Sports Ministry.
Karim added tourism sector remained as one of the major contributors to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP), where it recorded a total of 4.86mil in tourist arrivals, which generated RM8.59bil in tourism receipts and contributed 7.9 percent to the state’s GDP last year.
In order to further spur growth and its competitive edge, he also called on the industry and the government to strengthen cooperation and coordinate efforts to develop new products and increase productivity, he said. He noted that this was in line with the Blueprint Productivity Malaysia (MPB) and the establishment of Tourism Productivity Nexus to enhance the productivity of the state’s tourism sector.
Karim further elaborated the industry players should also study the impact of their activities to ensure they contributed to the growth of the sector. He stressed that priority should be accorded to products that would be of added values to tourists. According to him, the Tourism Productivity Nexus together with MPC would be providing a one-toone consultation session to boost business performance through its Business Excellence framework.
Through the consultation, participants would be exposed to the Easy Business Excellence or EzBE app to assess the performance of their respective companies. At the same time, the event also witnessed some members of the tourism sector associations signing the productivity pledge contained within the MPB. On the STP, Karim said it would also be held at selected destinations throughout the country, aimed at identifying new or existing tourism products that would be highlighted to further improve the local tourism sector. A total of 180 participants from Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia took part in the event.
