The 27th Rainforest World Music Festival will be back at the Sarawak Cultural Village next week.
SARAWAK’s mainstay tourism offerings such as ecotourism and the ever-popular annual Rainforest Music Festival are especially a hit with the Gen Z and Millennials.
The Rainforest Music Festival 2024 will be held from next Friday, from June 28 to June 30 in Sarawak’s Cultural Village in Kuching, is expected to draw crowds of thousands – last year alone, 19,000 visitors attended the three-day event.
Other than being headlined by huge names such as Datuk Zainal Abidin and Kitaro during its evening concerts, the event will also hold cultural displays, day-time music workshops and food stalls.
Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) chief executive officer Sharzede Salleh Askor says since the region’s tourism products are known for its cultural authenticity, it resonates well with the young travelers’ segment.
She says those from Europe especially love going on nature trails and sites in Sarawak, while those closer to home are drawn to the local cuisine.
“It depends on each market. Different market, different clusters, they look for different things. For Europeans, it is about culture and nature, they just love what we have.
“When you talk about Singaporeans, it will be about food. Singaporeans will come on weekends, the price (food) is cheap to them. With our present currency exchange, we can work this towards our advantage.”
At the same time, the region is making headway to regain its pre-pandemic number of tourist arrivals.
Sharzede says 2019 was the region’s best year which saw 4.66 tourist arrivals.
“Obviously our best year was 2019. So when we hit the year 2022, we receive 2.02 million in arrivals. In 2023, it was 3.93 million.
“And of course this year we are aiming for four million, with positive numbers,” Sharzede tells Sunday Star when met recently.
Sarawak Deputy Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting who was also present, says the tourism receipt for last year was RM9.99bil and contributed 7.11% to its gross domestic product (GDP).
“This year the tourism receipt can be about RM10.27bil. The GDP will be 7.27%”.
Sharzede says STB has been very aggressive about marketing Sarawak.
“I can tell you that the STB is very aggressive. Otherwise, you are just going to lose out. STB, as a marketing agent, we need to be aggressive. STB has its own pavilion now when we go overseas. We want Sarawak to be seen as it is. People notice us much more.”
The region’s tourism industry foremost top market is tourists from the neighbouring countries, such as Brunei at about three million arrivals to date, followed by Indonesia and Singapore.
“(Other markets include) China, India, United Kingdom and Europe. In STB, we have broken it up in clusters, Asian, Oceania (where we focus on Australia), Germany and the Nordic markets. But there are spillovers and we now have Italians coming here.
“At the same time, from a marketing perspective, China, India and the Middle East are important. We are now penetrating into the Middle Eastern market.”
Sharzede also says Sarawak is working to tap on the Indian film industry, which can be a huge boost to the region’s tourism.
“I just got back from Chennai and they (filmmakers) are really interested. You can feel their energy. We met up with about 60 filmmakers in Chennai. And they are coming for a familiarisation tour to look at (filming) locations.
“They only know Malaysia through Langkawi, Penang, Genting and Kuala Lumpur. But we want to sell more destinations.”
At Adau performing at the Rainforest World Music Festival in July last year. — Photos: Sarawak Tourism Board
