Sarawak on track for 5 million tourists this year
Sarawak welcomed 4.83 million visitors in 2024 – a 23% increase from the previous year. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA : Sarawak is on track to achieving its target of five million visitors in 2025 after welcoming over 1.6 million in the first four months of the year.
Tourism, creative industry and performing arts minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the current visitor numbers also gave him confidence that Sarawak could earn RM12.73 billion in tourism receipts this year, reported Bernama.
'Tourism receipts reached RM12.45 billion in 2024, up from RM9.99 billion in 2023. From January to April this year alone, we have already generated RM4.07 billion,' he said at the Sarawak state assembly today.
He said Sarawak welcomed 4.83 million visitors in 2024 – a 23% increase from the previous year – surpassing the pre-pandemic level in 2019 by 3.63%
He added that most international tourists to Sarawak were from neighbouring Asean countries such as Brunei (1.89 million), Indonesia (653,883), Singapore (59,793), and the Philippines (46,853).
Karim said Sarawak had allocated RM382.57 million for tourism development under the 12th Malaysia Plan, supplemented by RM136.44 million under Projek Rakyat and RM49.9 million in federal funding via the tourism, arts and culture ministry.
Completed projects include the conservation of historical forts, ecotourism facilities at Santubong National Park, upgrades to the Melasak Waterfall Tourism Centre, and enhancements at the Sarawak Cultural Village.
On the Sarawak–Malaysia My Second Home (SMM2H) programme, Karim said 3,141 applications had been approved since the programme began in 2007.
He said 560 approvals under SMM2H generated RM111.6 million in fixed deposits last year, while 265 approvals in early 2025 contributed another RM65.3 million.
Most of the programme's participants are from China, the UK, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the US.
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