Form consortium to provide attractive tour packages, agents told

Members of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Sarawak chapter have been urged to form consortium in order to come up with a variety of packages to support the “Go Sarawak” short holiday packages. Sarawak Matta chairman Matthew Chen said “Go Sarawak” would need constant creative and innovative repackaging to maintain their draw. “You can form your own consortium to work on attractive holiday packages and it could be for inbound or outbound trips,” he said at Matta Sarawak’s annual dinner in Kuching on Monday. The dinner also saw the launching of the “Go Sarawak” packages by Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Tan Joo Phoi.

Launch: Tan symbolically launches the ‘Go Sarawak’ short holiday package as Chen and Rashid (right) look on.

The “Go Sarawak” packages was initiated by Matta Sarawak via a consortium made up of 13 Matta members with the aim of assisting the state government promote Sarawak as a tourist destination. Chen said the consortium was in the midst of drawing up more Sarawak destination packages which would include Mulu and Sibu by mid next year. He said travel agents had now evolved into becoming travel consultants whom clients could rely on to plan a vacation tailored to their needs.

According to him, the Internet age had pushed these agents a step ahead and this was one of the key results. “A lot of people say that the tourism industry is a sunset industry but I assure you it is not. It will forever be there and the number will grow especially now with the low-cost carriers providing accessibility at cheap fares,” he said. Tan, who was representing Tourism and Heritage Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan, said that the tourism sector was one of the major income contributors to the country’s economy.

He said in order to develop and sustain this, all had to work hard and be more creative and innovative in their approach and market strategies. He said Sarawak targeted its visitor arrivals to reach 4mil next year and he considered this as a modest and reasonable target. It was learnt that visitor arrivals to Sarawak till October this year stood at 2,589,929, a slight increase of 1% as compared with the same period in 2009. Domestic arrivals showed a significant increase of 19.5% while foreign arrivals showed a decrease of about 9%. The dinner also feted 500 guests which included 60 travel agents and members of the media from the peninsula who are in the state on a familiarisation trip.

-thestar online.