Sarawak has received 3,671 cruise passengers with an arrival of seven cruise ships in 2016.
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports, Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said for the first quarter of 2017 Sarawak Ports of Kuching and Bintulu have received a total of three cruise ships by Silversea Cruises based in Monaco and Oceania Cruises based in United State of America.
“As to date, total cruise passengers up until March 2017 were 1,006 passengers. For the year, Sarawak is expected to receive total of 6 cruise ships arrival with 2,000 passengers,” he said in his winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly sitting yesterday.
In order for Sarawak to be successful in cruise tourism, Karim said it must be able to attract mega cruise ships that accommodate 4,000-5,000 passengers per arrival.
He said Sarawak tourism attraction is within the city’s vicinity like in Kuching and Bintulu. The state is ideal for cruise shore excursions while the lack of a deep sea dedicated cruise port will deter mega cruise ships from coming to its shores.
“My ministry will put forward proposal to the State Government to propose for the construction of a deep sea port with dedicated cruise facilities to tap into the expanding cruise passengers,” he said
According to him, the trend outlook for 2017 will see younger generations embracing cruise travel more than ever before and the demand for expedition cruises will rise due to the impact that adventure travel is growing at a record pace.
He said the positive growth in the cruise tourism sector can be one of the main future contributor to tourist arrivals and economic spin-off should Sarawak decides to developed deep sea ports and terminals to accommodate the growing number and size of New mega cruise ships in the region.
