Sarawak tourism expected to be back track after slump during rationalisation exercise

MULU: It will take Sarawak one to three years to regain its position in the global tourism market following the rationalisation exercise that has been left wanting.

GETTING BACK ON TOP: MASWings has solved problems with interlining and connectivity in Sarawak.

Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) chief executive officer Gracie Geikie made this projection during an interview with the The Borneo Post here on Monday, based on the way the market functioned.

She explained that tour retail agents, for example, would begin promoting destinations about a year ahead, and if a destination could not meet their deadline, it would have to wait for the next round - a year down the road.

Geikie however is confident that Sarawak has taken the first step on the right path towards regaining its lost ground through the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) subsidiary, MASWings, which has effectively solved problems of interlining and connectivity in the State.

“Because MASWings is a subsidiary of MAS, MAS will put us back on its network, and it is now up to all of us including the travel and tour operators to do our work,” she said when met after the launching of MASWings inaugural flight.

It is learnt that retail agents will meet in November every year at the World Travel Mart to see what destinations are on the market and they would begin promoting these destinations in print and other media from March the following year.

In this respect, sources in the industry claimed that Sarawak’s visibility in the market had gone down since the rationalisation exercise in August last year because retail agents were dissatisfied with the air services, particularly the rural air service which serves the State’s biggest draw, Mulu.

Geikie conceded that the industry had suffered big losses in the last one year or so but now, she hoped that the industry’s players would take the cue from the launching of MASWings’ services.

“The industry must now take the cue from here (MASWings). A lot of the issues we have been talking about had been resolved as of today. There are no more problems with interlining and connectivity. We have to begin rejuvenating market confidence.

“Going downhill is easy but going back up takes a lot of energy. The next important thing now is to ensure sustainability,” she said.

MASWings has taken over the RAS in Sarawak and Sabah from Fly Asian Express (FAX). FAX operated the RAS from August last year after MAS gave it up in a rationalisation of domestic air services, which was linked to the airline’s turnaround plan.

The inaugural flight on Monday was launched by Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who was also confident that the decline in tourism in Sarawak in the past year would be reversed through MASWings.

At a press conference after the event, MASWings managing director Dr Amin Khan emphasized that what was important about MASWings’ services was that from on Monday, there was full interlining.

“This means that one passenger can buy from one travel agent, has only one booking reference, one ticket and can check through all the way.

“The way we do it is because in MASWings, the flight code is also MH which is the same as Malaysia Airlines, and because of that we are connected to 200 plus partner airlines and 16,000 travel agents worldwide.

“And that is why we keep on saying that we are connecting the world to Sarawak and Sabah,” he said.

Geikie said the resolution of interlining and connectivity problems had paved the way for STB to accelerate its marketing activities.

She said they had already started working on this, and they will be participating in the WTM next month, where packages for Mulu would be offered.

She said the package, called “Best of Borneo”, was jointly introduced by STB, the Sabah Tourism Board and the Brunei Tourism Board. The packages will promote attractions in the rural areas of Sarawak and Sabah.

“We feel that this is the right time (for the package). Although we have been talking about it for quite a while, it didn’t really work so well because internationally it was difficult to market when you have too many levels or tiers of booking modes,” Gracie said.

She also believed that MAS could now reinstate Mulu in its MAS Golden Holidays programme. “The packages are all there. Now we have to take them out and dust them off a little,” she said.

Written by:
Raynore Mering
The Borneo Post
3rd October 2007