KUCHING, March 20 — The Sarawak government said it will discuss with the state Immigration Department the possibility of issuing visa on arrival for foreign tourists entering Miri via Brunei.

"This will be discussed with the Immigration Department in a dialogue in Miri tomorrow because we want to make it easier for foreign tourists going to Brunei to also come over to Miri,” state Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Karim Rahman Hamzah told reporters today after chairing the state tourism steering committee meeting here.

Karim said he is confident that the issue can be addressed at the dialogue that major players in the tourism industry are also expected to attend.

"When tourists visit Brunei, many know about the availability of our Mulu National Parks and the Niah Caves and the beaches, and Miri is just next door,” he said, adding that his ministry wants to attract those tourists to Sarawak as well.

Karim said last year Sarawak recorded 4,856,888 tourist arrivals, an increase of 4.2 per cent from the 4,661,100 arrivals in 2016.

He said the tourism receipts for last year totalled about RM8.59 billion compared to RM8.37 billion in 2016.

Karim added that Brunei remains the top tourism market for Sarawak, with 1.73 million visitor arrivals in 2017 due to an aggressive promotional strategy.

He said Indonesia (513,442) came second and the Philippines (68,380) third for last year.