KUCHING, 27 December 2021: Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) is organising a series of tourism presentations and activities to showcase Sarawak as the leading and preferred ecotourism destination during Ecotourism Week at the Malaysia Pavilion in Dubai Expo 2020 in UAE that started 26 December 2021 and closes 1 January 2022.
Aptly named as “Ecotourism Week”, it is expected to attract tour agencies, potential investors, business interests alike and international visitors as STB will be promoting Sarawak’s ecotourism, nature and adventure products through engagement sessions at Malaysia’s Rainforest Canopy Pavilion, inspired by the country’s majestic rainforests.
Among the promotional activities planned is a Destination Sarawak Talk Show which will be held on 30 December 2021 with potential buyers and media as the target audience. During this talk show, STB will be highlighting the uniqueness of Sarawak’s Culture, Adventure, Nature, Food and Festivals (CANFF).
The talk show will also emphasise STB being one of the tourism agencies in Malaysia to involve their tourism stakeholders in committing to the Responsible Tourism pledge that focuses on 3Es – Environmental Protection, Empowering Communities through Education, and Economic Viability and Impact.
This is in line with STB’s efforts in advocating Responsible Tourism based on its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) focus, particularly SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG17 (Partnership for the Goals).
The Dubai Expo 2020, the first to be held in the Middle East region and the third-largest global event in terms of economic and cultural impact after the Olympics and the World Cup, is held from 1 October 2021 until 31 March 2022 with 192 participating countries and is expected to attract 25 million visitors. Originally scheduled in 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic, the organisers maintained the name ‘Dubai Expo 2020’ for marketing and branding purposes.
With the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, the expo is divided into three compelling districts – Mobility, Opportunity and Sustainability – that presents the diversity of culture, art, entertainment of different nations in the world in a futuristic approach.
STB Chief Executive Officer Sharzede Datu Hj Salleh Askor said STB’s participation in Dubai Expo is a golden opportunity to put Sarawak at visitors’ top of mind when it comes to ecotourism and responsible tourism in the ASEAN region.
“Considering the scale of this expo and the number of potential engagements, STB aims to strengthen Sarawak’s visibility worldwide despite the pandemic”, she said.
“I believe there is great potential to encourage Middle East visitors to make Sarawak their stopover destination when travelling to Malaysia. The Dubai Expo 2020 will make a great platform for us to diversify our market into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to do business networking and to introduce the varieties of ecotourism-based tours and products,” she added.
The Ecotourism Week at the Malaysia Pavilion showcase will be launched by the Malaysian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Dato’ Sri Nancy Hj. Shukri on 29 December 2021. Malaysia’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai is spearheaded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation with the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation as implementing agency.
Malaysia is hosting 26 weekly thematic trade and business programmes throughout the six-month global expo, which will be led and supported by 21 ministries, 70 departments and agencies and five state governments.
For more information about Sarawak, log on to Sarawak Tourism Board’s website: https://sarawaktourism.com.
