“If we can increase that by 10-20% next year, we can get close to 30,000 UK visitors,” Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Sarawak’s minister for tourism, creative industries and performing arts, told TTG@WTM.  “We hope to hit between 23,000 and 25,000 UK visitors this year.”

Asked why Brits travel to Malaysia’s richest state, Hamzah highlighted how Sarawak has 34 ethnicities, offers visitors security, and noted how one pound sterling equals 5.74 Malaysian Ringgit.

“After Covid, there’s been an urge to travel. Even among the Malaysian states, domestic tourism has been on the rise. We can see this happening across all European markets.”

But he added: “18,000 UK visitors – that figure could be better. The UK is not yet one of the leading markets, like Singapore or Brunei. Up to 3,000 Brunei visit Sarawak every day.”

Sarawak’s tourism chiefs expect to hit four million international visitors in 2024 as Chinese travellers start to return to the destination. “Once the Chinese start travelling in numbers, we expect an influx of visitors,” he said. “We like to have a diverse number of people coming here.”

In 2020, Sarawak aimed to surpass five million visitors before the pandemic forced Malaysia to close its borders. Hamzah said the state’s tourism budget would be confirmed at the end of November.

“Sarawak is the richest state in Malaysia,” he added. “Therefore, our budget is always very good. With our 2024 marketing budget, we will continue to focus on sports, music, cultural and food events.”

Watch: Sarawak smashes global arrivals targets and reveals developments for 2024