Cultural troupes to perform at launch of Winter Olympics 2018
KUCHING: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak will send their cultural troupes to perform at the launch and promotion of the 2018 Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang in Gangwon Province, South Korea which begins on Feb 11.
The troupes comprising 10 dancers and four musicians will be in Pyeongchang from Feb 10 to 14 to perform Sarawak ethnic dances as part of the year-long promotion of the Olympics.
The delegation will be led by an officer from the Ministry, Mohd Rezza, and the troupes will perform on Feb 11 to gear up for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Assistant Minister for Arts and Culture Datuk John Sikie Tayai revealed that apart from joining the promotional launch of the Olympics, the cultural troupes’ participation is also to showcase Sarawak to South Koreans.
As a member of East-Asia Inter Regional Tourism Forum ( Eatof), Sarawak has pledged to support the Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Festival, he said at a press conference at his ministry before handing over the state flag to the dance troupe leader here yesterday.
Eatof’s primary goal is to increase cooperation in tourism among countries in the region.
‘It is mainly to promote culture and exchange programmes (training and education in tourism sectors) among countries through cooperation in tourism,” he explained.
He hoped that participating and showcasing Sarawakian culture at Pyeongchang would encourage South Korean tourists to visit Sarawak.
In 2016, arrivals from South Korea numbered 8,726 – an increase of 9 per cent from 2015. The visitors focused on golf and adventure.
At the moment, there is no direct connectivity to South Korea so the solution is charter flights, he added.
Apart from Gangwon and Sarawak, the other Eatof members are Province of Cebu in Philipines, Luang Prabang Province in Laos, Quang Ninh in Vietnam, Siem Reap Province in Cambodia, Tuv Province in Mongolia, Chiang Mai Province in Thailand, Jilin Province in Japan and Yogjakarta Special Region in Indonesia.
The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics will be the second winter Olympics held in Asia after the games in Nagano, Japan.