Oktoberfeastival a boost for local tourism industry — Lee
KUCHING: tHe Spring Oktoberfeastival is one event that can attract more international and domestic tourists to the city and boost tourism in Sarawak.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin said it is a creative concept for a shopping mall to embrace a western culture and transform it into a Sarawakian experience.
“The city is always looking for something to offer to tourists and now we can tell our friends abroad to visit Kuching in September to experience tHe Spring Oktoberfeastival,” he said at the launch of tHe Spring Oktoberfeastival at its outdoor car park on Friday evening.
His text of speech was read by political secretary to the chief minister Tan Kai.
“This event offers the tourists an opportunity to immerse themselves in a unique cultural experience whereby they can experience a piece of culture from different parts of the world through the food and beverages while being entertained with live music and dances.
“This is the first time Sarawak has celebrated Oktoberfest on a grand scale. It was also held to showcase what tHe Spring can offer in terms of entertainment,” he added.
“It is a multi-dimensional event with the potential to attract more tourists to Sarawak as part of the Visit Sarawak Year 2019 calendar.
“Let’s also give emphasis on cultural and urban destinations as we have so much more to offer - food, night life, fun, leisure and of course shopping,” said Lee.
Meanwhile, tHe Spring Management Services director of leasing and marketing Andy Song said tHe Spring is going to liven up the end of September and bring the shoppers the biggest scale of food, drinks, music and fun that it has ever organised.
“Two years ago when we started tHe Spring’s Oktoberfeastival, there were only 20 tables and nine stalls which was so well received.
“Today, we have grown fourfold with a much bigger space to house 88 tables and 26 stalls to set a new bar to hopefully satisfy thirsty shoppers and tourists visiting the city,” he said.
Song said tHe Spring was proud to be collaborating with What About Kuching (WAK), a tribute to the spirit of Kuching, a movement celebrating arts, culture and lifestyles scenes of Kuching.
In thanking Boost for its partnership to make the event possible, Song said all stalls involved with tHe Spring Oktoberfeastival is Boosted which gives the shoppers and patrons an electronic cashless payment option and additional rewards by using the app.
“tHe Spring will continue to reach out and attract more shoppers as an important part of tourism and work with more tourism partners by bringing in more brands and deliver more exciting events as our continual commitment to improve our offerings,” Song added.
Also present was Boost head of trade marketing Gary Foo.