State Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah wishes to join together all tourism players and partners as one large tourism family and to embrace the new programmes and initiatives introduced during a Covid 19 pandemic.

He said that that the pandemic offers industry players a perfect opportunity to rethink tourism at the national level and he is confident that the measures now being adopted by the government will shape tomorrow's tourism, as well as Sarawak.

“As custodians of Sarawak tourism, we are continuously strategising and re-strategizing to prepare and ensure comprehensive tourism recovery plans.

“We are doing all we can to improve and rebuild destinations, to encourage innovation, and re-think the tourism sector, while we are facing challenges during this pandemic,” he said at the Sarawak Ambassadors programme certificate presentation on e-learning for e-hailing drivers at a hotel.

The Minister congratulated the e-hailing drivers on their e-learning completion of the tourism module and said that he expected to see them all as 'Sarawak ambassadors.'

He acknowledged the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic across the tourism ecosystem worldwide.

When Sarawak enters this phase of 'recovery,' he hopes that businesses will be slowly but certainly operating.

He believes in any challenge and battle the people face at the moment, at the end of the tunnel there is always light.

“At the ministry, we have taken several measures to implement stringent standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the new norms in traveling are put in place.

“We are also collaborating with industry players to devise plans to help sustain tourism businesses in Sarawak.”

Apart from awarding e-hailing driver's certificates, Abdul Karim also attended two ceremonies between the Sarawak Board of Tourism and the Sarawak Chapter of the Malaysian Hotel Association (MAH), and the Sarawak Chapter and Core Systems technology of the Malaysian Hotel Association (MA H).

The signing ceremony MOUs is an effort to stimulate the hospitality industry and domestic tourism during this pandemic, in collaboration with the Sarawak Chapter of the Malaysia Hotels Association (MAH).