SMARTguide - Sarawak

FACTS & FIGURES
© 2019 Rob Allyn / STB
Outdoor activities
are a big driver for
tourism in Sarawak
Facts & figures
Sarawak works to boost international tourism
2020 sees Sarawak heavily promoting its
destinations to overseas source markets as
part of the ongoing Visit Sarawak campaign,
coupled with Visit Malaysia 2020.
The past year has seen 5.2%
growth in inbound travellers
to Sarawak, from 2018 to
2019, with an overall total
of 4,662,419 visitors in the
year. Around 2 m of these
are foreigners. To get a better
grasp of Sarawak’s inbound
figures, it is important to
note that a large part of
the international figures
quoted concern visitors from
neighbouring countries –
Brunei (1,296,017 visitors in
2019), Indonesia (418,461 in
2019), and the Philippines
(63,238 in 2019). A number
of these visits may thus
have been visits to family
and friends, or occasional
business visits, rather than for
leisure tourism. Unlike many
other countries, Sarawak’s
tourism infrastructure has
gone from almost zero in the
1970s, to what it is today. In
1972, total tourist numbers
for the entire state were
54,223.
An interesting market for
Sarawak today is Singapore
(traditionally a major source
market for all of Malaysia).
From 2018-19, the number
of visitors from Singapore
jumped by 7% from 43,734
to 46,812. Australia, another
major source market for
Sarawak, saw growth of 3.9%
in visitor numbers in the year
to 2019, with a total of 16,881
inbound travellers.
Over the past year, visitor
numbers from key source
markets in Europe, such as
the UK, France and Germany
remained relatively static,
with a drop of around 4% in
German visitors balanced
out by a similar increase in
visitors from France, while UK
visitors, which by far make
FROM
2010 TO 2019,
OVERALL
INBOUND
TOURIST
ARRIVALS
GREW BY 42%
up the lion’s share of the
European market, remained
stable at 32,194 in 2019.
As figures tend to vary country
by country from one year to
another, it is interesting to
look at broader trends over
the past (almost) decade.
From 2010 to 2019, overall
inbound tourist arrivals grew
by 42%, primarily buoyed
by a growth in domestic
travellers visiting the state.
Over that time, there has
also been remarkable growth
in Indian visitors – from
16,533 to 26,791 – a rise of
62%. Singaporean visitor
numbers were up by 21%,
Germans +11.45% and most
interestingly, the biggest
growth for a European
country came from France
with a rise of 64% over the
nine years, from 3,856 in
2010 to 6,325 in 2019. For
its part, South Korea saw the
biggest growth over the nine
years from 2010 to last year,
up by 103% from 5,327 in
2010 to 10,820 in 2019. Major
growth has also come from
Taiwan, up 47.7% to 10,004
visitors from 2010 to 2019
4 SMART GUIDE www.sarawaktourism.com