Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Miri can lure more tourists from Singapore through promotion


MIRI: More Singaporeans could well be on their way here to spend their holidays if the city is well promoted in the island republic.

“Singaporeans might already know and heard about Miri but it has not been well promoted there,” its Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli said during a dialogue session with Miri Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industries here yesterday.

He added that Miri had the potential to attract more tourists from Singapore if it were well promoted in the republic under its ‘prosper thy neighbour’ concept.

“Last year, we received 14 million high-end tourists who stayed for up to five days. And, under the ‘prosper thy neighbour’ concept, the Singapore Tourism Promotional Board and local tour agents have a package that combines Singapore with other destination nearby such as Bali and Jakarta in Indonesia and Sabah,” he added.

Mulu and Miri could be included in the package, he added, “if the local tourism players have the initiative to work with Singapore Tourism Promotional Board and tour and travel agents there”.

“Under the concept, we complement and not to compete with each other. I believe we can apply the same concept to promote Miri to Singapore and beyond,” said Masagos, who was impressed with the warm hospitality and friendliness shown by the people here.

He also gave the thumbs up to the city’s (Miri) cleanliness.

According to Masagos again, there were many segment of tourists they could tap into apart from the high-end tourists.

Singapore’s Ministry of Education has a programme for students, which allows them to tour other countries at least once in their 10 years of study.

.
.