Over the course of its 15 years of existence, Malaysia’s first convention bureau, Business Events Sarawak successfully secured 1,006 business events amounting to RM 3 billion in total economic impact, RM 182 million in tax revenue and 241,238 employment opportunities.
Now as Sarawak has resumed business events, event retention and projected economic growth are largely due to the incentivised packages that were recently launched. From 1 January 2022, Sarawak is expecting to welcome 93 business events worth an estimated RM310 million in total economic impact.
But one achievement that is differentiating Sarawak from other destinations is from being an economic-centric destination to one that advocates for the legacy impact of business events. “Legacy impacts of business events are one of the key strategies to help achieve the Post Covid Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 goals under the tourism sector,” said Sarawak’s caretaker of Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry, The Honourable Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah. “We strive to secure at least 50% of the total bid wins from now until 2030 to be legacy-driven and beneficial to our sectors, economies, communities, environment, and policy transformations.”
“We are very proud to see how far Sarawak’s business events sector has come, especially as it is gaining traction as a contributing sector in the national and global arena.” commented Amelia Roziman, CEO of BESarawak. “In 15 glorious years, Sarawak has successfully grown a “tribe” of industry players and stakeholders who are fully equipped to harness the community-changing benefits of business events.”