Tourism minister says no issues on working with Sarawak Tourism Board

KUCHING, Oct 30 — Federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi said today there is no problem for the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) to cooperate with Tourism Malaysia (TM) in promoting the state overseas.

“TM has always opened its doors to receive whatever proposals from STB in areas of cooperation,” he said when asked at a press conference on the level of cooperation between two tourism promotion agencies after Sarawak withdrew its representative in TM board in 2017.

“It is up to STB to cooperate with TM. We can sit down and discuss things,” he told reporters after soft launching Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM2020) here.

Mohamaddin said he believes that STB and TM officials have met for joint marketing efforts overseas.

He said in conjunction with the soft launch of VM2020, TM has also organised an engagement session with the Sarawak tourism industry players and the media representatives.

He said this event, the first to be held over many years, was to discuss about the efforts to promote tourism products in Sarawak, especially when the state was promoting Sarawak Tourism Campaign, starting this year.

“This shows that there is cooperation between STB and TM,” he added.

On June 12, 2017, Sarawak withdrew its representative from the Malaysian Tourism Board with immediate effect, following the state’s disagreement with the federal government over the introduction of a new tourism tax.

The Chief Minister’s Office, in a statement, had said the state government decided to withdraw the participation of its representative in the board, saying that it was not necessary as this was duplicating the role and functions of the STB.

Sarawak Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah had previously urged Putrajaya to defer the July 1, 2017 implementation of the new tourism tax for Sabah and Sarawak, saying the federal government should respect the Malaysia Agreement 1963 when deciding such matters.

This led to a rebuke from Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who had said the tax would benefit Sarawak more than it would affect tourism in the state, noting that luxury hotels that would attract the highest tax rate were a rarity in the state.