Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah wants all the music festivals in Sarawak to resume this year to revive the tourism industry.

The Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts said his ministry plans bring back some activities on its tourism calendar, including music festivals while keeping an eye on the Covid-19 pandemic situation.

“The Rainforest World Music Festival, I want it to be held, personally. The same goes for Jazz Festival and Country Music Festival. But of course, it still depends on the Covid-19 situation in the next one or so months.

He said the tourism industry can only fully recover when the pandemic situation gets better.

Abdul Karim, who is also Minister for Youth, Sport and Entrepreneur Development, said the number of visitors to Sarawak in December last year shot up by more than 500 per cent compared to arrivals in the same month in 2020.

“The visitors might not be foreigners but from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah,” he added.