New strategies to attract tourists to Kuching Heritage Trail

KUCHING: Traditional villages and colonial buildings, including shops more than 100 years old along the Sarawak River here, can become the new attractions of the tourism sector in Sarawak, State Tourism and Heritage Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said yesterday.

He said the state government would adopt several new approaches to popularise the local tourism sector through the “Heritage Trail” yet to be fully known by foreign tourists.

“The Heritage Trail can endear foreign tourists to Kuching city which is rich in history and culture,” he told reporters after the pre-launch of the Bernama Walk Hunt 2011, carrying the theme ‘Land of the Hornbill Heritage Trail’, organised by the news agency Staff Club (KKB), here.

Also present at the event were Sarawak Information Department director Resat Salleh, Sarawak Broadcasting Department director Abdul Jalani Mahmud and Bernama deputy editor-in-chief and KKB deputy president Datuk Zakaria Wahab.

The walk hunt, scheduled for July 16, will begin at the Kuching Waterfront and take the participants, expected to number 500 including from the peninsular, along a pre-determined route during which they have to find answers to questions, among others, on places of historical significance and attractions in Kuching.

Abang Johari said efforts would be made to conserve old buildings such as the row of shops along Jalan Main Bazaar besides providing more pedestrian walkways.

He also said that products such as the Heritage Trail could benefit the local people, especially those in the traditional villages along the Sarawak River, engaged in small businesses, water transportation and homestay programmes.

Continue reading at: New strategies to attract tourists to Kuching Heritage Trail

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Kuching Waterfront Heritage Trail Upgrading To Be Ready By Year-End

KUCHING -- The upgrading work on the Kuching Waterfront Heritage Trail here is expected to be completed by the year-end or the first quarter of next year, said Sarawak Housing and Urban Development Minister Amar Abang Johari Openg.

He said the RM25 million project, stretching from the Kuching Waterfront to the Brooke Dockyard and ending at the mouth of Sungai Bintangor, a tributary of Sungai Sarawak, involved a one-day walk that promised to showcase the state's racial and religious understanding and tolerance. (US$1=RM2.99)

"The tender is already out and the project's implementation is immediate," he told a news conference after chairing a meeting with the stakeholders of East Malaysia state of Sarawak's tourism industry, here, Tuesday.

He was tasked to look after the state's Tourism and Heritage Ministry by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud until the state cabinet reshuffle when the porfolio became vacant following the defeat of its previous minister, Dr Geroge Chan in the April 16 state election.

The Brooke Dockyard, which was built during the Brooke era and had since moved to the Sejingkat industrial park, near here, will be transformed into a cultural centre while three electronic billboards, costing RM1 million each, will be installed along the river bank to provide an attractive ambience.

Abang Johari said that apart from providing locally-crafted "perahu bandung," the Kuching version of the gondolo for basking in front of Fort Margherita, which would target honeymooners, the ministry was also proposing that boat transport could be an alternative mode for conference delegates to reach the Borneo Convention Centre, Kuching (BCCK) at the Kuching Isthmus.

He said the trail would complement the ongoing RM50 million redevelopment project for the traditonal Malay villages on the opposite bank to be upgraded with modern infrastructure within the next seven to 10 years.

The Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) must embark on strategic marketing approaches, which should focus on cultural, adventure and nature (CAN) branding to attract tourists to the state, he added.

Continue reading at: Kuching Waterfront Heritage Trail Upgrading To Be Ready By Year-End
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