The Sarawak state government last week unveiled the Visit Sarawak Year logo in Singapore, where it will soon have an office, as a precursor to the campaign’s official launch in January 2019.
At a trade event held in Singapore last week, Sarawak assistant minister of tourism, arts and culture, Lee Kim Shin said: “The tagline, More to Discover underscores Sarawak Tourism Board’s (STB) strategy to position the state as a plethora of culture, adventure, nature, food, and festivals offerings that are not found anywhere else in the world, and ready to be discovered.”
The campaign is aimed at increasing visitor arrivals to Sarawak to 5.2 million by end 2019, from 4.9 million in 2017. Apart from the domestic market, key focus markets include the UK, Germany, the Benelux countries, China, Australia and South-east Asia.
Lee added: “Singapore will be a central hub for STB’s marketing strategies as the Sarawak state government will be setting up an office in the city-state next year.”
There are more than 600 seats daily between Singapore and Sarawak, served by Scoot, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia.
According to Lee, the 3D2N Kuching getaway is among the packages favoured by Singaporeans with Central Sarawak being a rising attraction.
Stretching from Sibu, on the lower Batang Rejang, upriver to Kapit and Bintulu and north-eastward along the coast to Bintulu and Miri, Central Sarawak offers some river journeys, national parks and modern urban conveniences. The Sibu Heritage Centre, the Niah National Park, the Tua Pek Kong temple and Fort Sylvia are some key attractions within this region.
STB’s CEO, Sherzede Salleh Askor, will intensify promotional efforts in 2019 through participation in trade fairs and digital platforms.
Ctrip, which says it sees 40 per cent of traffic opening its app in non-homebase destinations, is on a drive to make the “super app” the only one that users will use when they travel overseas.
In a video interview on the sidelines of ITB Asia last week, Victor Tseng, Ctrip’s vice president corporate affairs, told TTG Asia: “We’ve been seeing a tremendous diversification in how users are using Ctrip. Now they’re using Ctrip throughout their whole itinerary. That’s been an important initiative for us to continue to push, particularly when users are travelling overseas.”
Ctrip is expanding its capabilities for users overseas, so they don’t have to open another app to seek the right information, user reviews or booking tools.
Issues such as a slowdown in China’s economy, foreign currency fluctuations and Sino-US trade tiff are creating “a macro overhang”, Tseng admitted, but pointed to the recent Golden Week which delivered around nine per cent growth as a reason to be optimistic.
“When you look at nine per cent relative to other parts of the world in terms of travel spend, that’s still very, very good growth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ctrip’s ambitions to expand and tap global market sources through Trip.com are “making very good inroads”, Tseng said. Currently, the key markets Trip.com is focusing on include South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia and Russia.
Localisation is one of the ways Trip.com is taking to attract users to the site. In Singapore, for instance, the team works with local hotels to target staycations, which Singaporeans love.
Watch the full video to hear the full initiatives Ctrip is taking to stay ahead in the global industry here.