KUCHING, April 2 2026: Visitor arrivals to Sarawak for the period January to March remained positive despite facing travel cost pressure following the conflict in the Middle East and rising oil prices.
Minister of Tourism, Creative Industries and Performing Artsi Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said statistics for the first three months of this year showed that the momentum of visitor arrivals was still positive.
“We will continue to monitor, but hope that despite the war and the increase in oil prices, visitor arrivals to Sarawak can still be maintained.
“Most of our visitors come from neighbouring countries such as Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore, so we don’t need to worry too much if this trend continues,” he said when when met by reporters during the Sarawak Serumpun Majlis at the Sarawak Cultural Village last night..
He said federal Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Tiong King Sing also informed that visitor arrivals to Malaysia in March remained stable and were not significantly affected.
Commenting on the possibility of assistance to tourism industry players, he said any action would be considered based on the actual level of impact on the sector.
According to him, the government needs to assess the overall impact including on the hospitality, transportation and food supply chains.
“We will see how bad the situation is and of course the federal government is also looking into this matter because it is putting pressure on all parties.
“We hope this situation will not last long and will subside in the next few months,” he said.
He also commented on the temporary suspension of Batik Air flights to Bintulu and Sibu which was influenced by global factors including rising fuel prices.
He explained that airline operations depend on commercial factors, especially when certain routes record low load factors following the increase in ticket prices.
He said that the situation could cause people to postpone their travel, thus prompting airlines to re-evaluate their routes and frequency of operations.
However, he was optimistic that the situation would not last long and was expected to return to stability after geopolitical pressures subsided.
