SARAWAK’S Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Abdul Karim Hamzah, has strongly backed the call from tourism and business groups in the peninsula for the government to allow Singaporeans who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter the country without the need for compulsory quarantine.

“Definitely it’s something to be considered. We need to breathe life back into the tourism industry, and other businesses,” he said when asked if he would lend his support for the call.

“I want to see travel between Singapore and Malaysia, including to Sarawak, to be eased and this (is just one of the) ways,” Karim added.

The Sarawak Tourism Ministry website showed that 48,312 Singaporeans visited the state for pleasure and business.

Last year, the number plunged to 7,363.

The statistics make grim reading.

In January last year, just two months before Sarawak took steps to bar foreign visitors into the state, particularly those who have been to Wuhan in China, over 4,400 Singaporeans visited the state.

As wind of the pandemic got stronger, the number fell to just over 1,800 and down by 50% to 916 in March.

In the remaining nine months from April to December, the visitor arrival was in the single digit for five of the months.

Only one visitor was registered in April. – January 29, 2021.