SARAWAK’S tourism sector continues its impressive momentum, with over 1.6 million visitor arrivals and RM4.07 billion in tourism receipts recorded between January and April this year.
Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, said the state remains a top destination in the region, with Brunei, Indonesia, China, Singapore and the Philippines contributing the highest number of arrivals.
“From January to April 2025, visitors from Brunei numbered 314,015, followed by Indonesia (236,054), China (24,865), Singapore (18,637), and the Philippines (14,482),” he said during his ministerial winding-up speech in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) today.
He was confident that Sarawak is on track to meet its target of five million visitor arrivals and generate RM12.73 billion in tourism revenue by the end of 2025.
In 2024, the state welcomed 4.83 million visitors, marking a 23 per cent increase over 2023 and even surpassing pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by 3.63 per cent.
Tourism receipts for 2024 stood at RM12.45 billion, up from RM9.99 billion in 2023.
Abdul Karim said the services sector, which includes tourism, utilities, transport, communications, finance, insurance, real estate, and business services, remains a major contributor to Sarawak’s economy.
“In 2023, the services sector contributed RM58.21 billion, accounting for 39 per cent of Sarawak’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared to RM54.54 billion the year before.
“Tourism’s share of the services sector stood at 21 per cent,” he noted.
The minister added that major events and festivals continue to act as powerful drivers for the tourism industry, generating economic, cultural and social returns for local communities.
Abdul Karim said the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) has adopted a bolder, more strategic approach to marketing in 2025, focusing on high-impact travel fairs and trade events to boost brand visibility and expand its reach.
In the first quarter of 2025, STB rolled out 24 marketing initiatives across targeted markets: four domestic, eight in ASEAN, two in North Asia, seven in Europe and Oceania, and three in emerging markets.
This accounts for 47 per cent of its planned 51 programmes for the year.
He also noted that Sarawak’s destination performance in March 2025 was strong, scoring 8.6 out of 10 in numerical ratings and 8.8 in sentiment analysis, resulting in a Total Experience Score (TES) of 8.7, a notable improvement from the same period last year.
“Our state’s geographical location stood out as the best-performing category, achieving 9.1 in both numerical and sentiment scores, with a 28.5 per cent increase in online reviews,” he said.
Food and beverage services also scored 9.4, while hospitality services scored 8.8, and the ambience category achieved a sentiment rating of 7.7.
