FOLLOWING a sharp in tourist arrivals in the first five months of the year, Sarawak is confident it will meet its modest post Covid-19 target of 1.2 million annual visitors.

State Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah said arrivals have gone up 680% compared to the same period last year during a lockdown.

Karim said there were 439,150 arrivals between January and May, compared to 56,278 during the same period last year.

He said the state welcomed 43,404 foreign visitors January and May, up 376% compared to 9,108 during the same period last yea.

Karim was speaking at a press conference on the What About Kuching festival yesterday evening.

The festival, held for a month every October since 2017, is a showcase of the performing arts, culture and lifestyle of Sarawak people.

“I believe from June to December, the numbers will pick up again. That’s when the (tourist) events are,” he said, in reference to just-ended Rainforest World Music Festival, Borneo Jazz Festival Miri, Kuching Waterfront Jazz Festival, and a plethora of food fairs.

“That will pull in the visitors.”

Karim is most buoyed up by the reopening of Brunei’s borders on August 1.

The border reopening, he said, could see 4,000 Brunei people going to Miri or Limbang weekly for shopping and recreation.

In the pre-Covid 19 year of 2019, Sarawak received 1.29 million Brunei people, an average 159,800 per month, Immigration Department data showed.

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, the number of arrivals from Brunei fell to 180,616 before plunging to 3,810 last year. – July 1, 2022.