Comply with all safety rules, Bako National Park boat service operators reminded
KUCHING: The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry wants to see the ferrying of visitors to and from Bako National Park be done in full compliance with the safety rules – If the current boat service ie not up to the mark, the ministry would have to take over the matter.
Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah points out that although there has been no untoward incident so far, there have been cases of overloading of passengers.
“That is why we told Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC), if it gets so bad we will take over.
“We cannot allow the lives of visitors to be put in danger. For the time being, it is a source of income for the village folk as they are the ones operating the boats, but they must not look at it from the perspective of just filling up the boats,” he told reporters attending a townhall meeting with local tourism industry players here yesterday.
On the meeting, Abdul Karim said it was a fruitful discourse with a lot of feedback and suggestions, which were very useful contributions from the industry players themselves.
The Kampung Bako boats were among the topics being raised during the session.
Adding on, the minister said matters such as on whether or not a boat was overloading would be strictly monitored by the Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB).
“We try to look into this in details. We just hope that nothing bad would happen. Usually this sort of thing only gets magnified and pointing of fingers will start when something bad happens – we cannot afford to wait for that to happen; (we) do not want to see that.
“Kampung Bako gets an average of not less than 150 visitors per day, which is a lot. There are around 70 boats provided by the village folk – this has become an industry for them.
“The process of education needs to be stepped up, either for the boat owners or operators. For example, if the boat capacity is 10, the capacity must be 10; there must be life jackets on board all boats,” he said.
On a separate note, Abdul Karim said Sarawak’s tourist arrivals as at August this year, were at 2.9 million.
“The tourists are mostly domestic. There is a slight decrease in tourist arrivals from China, which could be due to no more flight connectivity from Shenzhen, but there is an increase of visitors from Singapore.”
In addition, Abdul Karim said the ministry was eyeing to equip more tourist attractions with WiFi connectivity.
It could also look into promoting Pulau Lakei as a tourist destination.
“There must be operators who are keen on developing the packages for it. In fact, they can start creating the packages now,” he said.
The closed-door townhall meeting was attended by hoteliers, travel agencies, tour guides and other players in the tourism industry.