Tourism industry players urged to exploit local cuisines as tourist ‘magnet’

KUCHING: Tour operators and promoters should take advantage of Sarawak’s variety of local cuisines as they are unique and can become a tourism ‘magnet’.

According to Assistant Minister for Tourism Datuk Lee Kim Shin, Sarawak is a multicultural and multiracial state with 27 ethnic groups, each offering a unique range of traditional cuisines.

“It would be a great benefit to Sarawak if these cuisines could be fully exploited by the tourism industry. I have also identified before that food tour can become one of Sarawak’s new tourism products,” he added.

He was launching a cycling food tour service/ product by a local tour operator at Lebuh Wayang here recently.

The tour will take tourists on bicycles to go around the city and sample Sarawkian street foods.

During the event, he congratulated the tour operator for taking the initiative in promoting ethnic delicacies to tourists.

Lee opined that Sarawak has one of the best street foods in the country and he was sure tourists would like them too.

“Street foods such as the Sarawak Laksa, Kolo Mee, Tebaloi and Kek Lapis, just to name a few, are Sarawak’s iconic food. Tour operators should take the initiative to promote these food apart from our traditional delicacies,” he said.

Also present during the event were permanent secretary to the Ministry of Tourism Datu Ik Pahon Joyik and Philip Yong, president of the Sarawak Tourism Federation.

Sarawakian food is known to differ from those found in the other states in the country which makes it very unique.

Apart from the street foods, examples of Sarawakian traditional food are Pansuh, Umai, Pais/ Lempis and Linut, just to name a few.

Tourism is estimated to make up 15 per cent of Sarawak’s gross domestic product ( GDP) - the third largest contributor to the local economy.