The new Visit Sarawak Year logo is officially launched! Sarawak Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin (centre-left) and Sarawak Tourism Board CEO Sharzede Datu HJ Salleh Askor (centre-right) led the unveiling at an industry event in Singapore On October 18, 2018. They were joined on stage by Malaysian High Commissioner Madam Engku Puteri Suraya Engku Mohd Affandi (3rd from left) and Tourism Attaché Malaysian High Commissioner Mr Edzuar Zar Ayob Azari.

Singapore, Oct 19, 2018 Sarawak Tourism Board, at an industry event held in Singapore, unveiled on October 18, 2018 the Visit Sarawak Year logo, as a precursor to its official launch in January 2019. 

The Visit Sarawak logo will be the anchor emblem for the Visit Sarawak campaign. 

Sarawak Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin said that the Visit Sarawak campaign is envisioned to place Sarawak on the tourism map as one of the preferred tourism destinations in Southeast Asia. 

Kuching

“The tagline, “More to Discover” underscores Sarawak Tourism Board’s strategy to position the state as a plethora of culture, adventure, nature, food, and festivals (CANFF) offerings that are not found anywhere else in the world, and ready to be discovered,” said Datuk Lee Kim Shin. 

Singapore will be a central hub for Sarawak Tourism Board’s marketing strategies as the Sarawak state government will be setting up an office in Singapore next year.

“This year,” the Minister continued, “we recorded a 16.5% increase in arrivals from January to July which is a good indicator of gaining interest from travellers from the Singapore market, attributable to the increased flights from Singapore through Scoot, Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia which are making daily trips. This gives us a total of more than 600 seats made available every day from Singapore to Kuching.” 

Kuching

He said that the three-day, two-night Kuching getaway is one of the packages which is favoured by Singaporeans with Central Sarawak being a rising attraction. Stretching from Sibu, on the lower Batang Rejang, upriver to Kapit and Bintulu and north-eastward along the coast to Bintulu and Miri, Central Sarawak offers some great river journeys, National Parks and modern urban conveniences. The Sibu Heritage Centre, the Niah National Park, the Tua Pek Kong temple and Fort Sylvia, are some key attractions within this region. 

Bario

“We will be looking to intensify efforts to increase arrivals from Singapore. In the coming year, Singaporeans can look forward to more new packages that will provide competitively priced offerings focusing on culture, adventure, nature, food and festivals. We will also look forward to explore how we can partner Singapore as our twin city.” 

Sarawak had recorded a total spending of RM8.59 billion from tourism in 2017, which accounted for 7.9% of its gross domestic product (GDP). 

International arrivals to Sarawak clocked in at 2.6 million last year. Some of the key international markets for Visit Sarawak will be UK, Germany, the Benelux, China, Australia, and ASEAN countries. ASEAN countries were a key source of visitors, which accounted for 48.98% or 2.38 million arrivals in 2017. 

The newly-minted Sarawak Tourism Board CEO, Salleh Askor said, “Digital will be a large part of our campaign. Besides creating content on digital platforms to reach out to our markets, we are also developing a mobile app which will anchor the discovery process for all our visitors.” 

Sarawak Tourism Board’s new logo multi-coloured logo spells out “Sarawak” with the tagline, “More to discover” to represent the aspirations of the campaign. 

Comprising seven colours, in curled script, the red and yellow colours represent the state flag while orange represents the strong spirit and vibrant energy of the different ethnic communities within Sarawak, which is quintessential to Sarawak’s diverse tourism proposition. Green is used to represent the verdant rainforests abundant with wildlife and blue is used to represent the calmness of the ocean along Sarawak’s long coastline. 

The uniqueness of the logo is augmented by the hornbill, which replaces the letter “A,” representing Sarawak’s moniker, “Bumi Kenyalang,” or “Land of the Hornbills” that the State has been known for many years, which is also an important symbol of luck to the indigenous people of Sarawak. 

The industry event saw a performance by award-winning Sarawakian songstress, Dayang Nurfaizah, and Tuku Kame, an award-winning world music band who has conducted global tours as a prelude to the offerings of the campaign.