{"id":33617,"date":"2025-09-03T23:44:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/?p=33617"},"modified":"2025-09-09T23:46:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:46:29","slug":"guided-tours-to-become-mandatory-for-bako-national-park-visitors-starting-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/?p=33617","title":{"rendered":"Guided Tours to Become Mandatory for Bako National Park Visitors Starting 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Starting in 2026, all visitors to Bako National Park will be required to join guided tours, announced Deputy Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Datuk Sebastian Ting Chew Yew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the move is aimed at ensuring a more structured visitor experience while raising awareness about environmental conservation and biodiversity in Sarawak\u2019s oldest national park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen this policy takes effect, every visitor will need to engage the services of a park guide. Payments will be standardised to ensure fairness,\u201d he explained after officiating the Park Guide Training Course in Bako on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, Sarawak has 231 active park guides out of 400 licensed guides. With the addition of 31 new guides currently undergoing training in Bako, the number has risen to 262.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Datuk Sebastian added that under the Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030, the government has set a target of training at least 300 park guides by 2030. With the present numbers, only 38 more are needed to meet the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also highlighted that Bako National Park welcomed more than 47,000 visitors last year, while in July this year alone it recorded 27,000 visitors. The total is expected to equal or surpass last year\u2019s figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Datuk Sebastian further expressed appreciation to local residents, especially those from Kampung Bako, for taking part in the training programme as guides and contributing to strengthening Sarawak\u2019s position as a leading ecotourism destination in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_039.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_039-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33615\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333;width:794px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_039-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_039-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_039-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_039-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_039.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_038.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_038-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33614\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333;width:792px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_038-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_038-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_038-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_038-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_038.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_037.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_037-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33613\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7777777777777777;width:790px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_037-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_037-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_037-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_037-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DatukSebastian_037.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting in 2026, all visitors to Bako National Park will be required to join guided tours, announced Deputy Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Datuk Sebastian Ting Chew Yew. He said the move is aimed at ensuring a more structured visitor experience while raising awareness about environmental conservation and biodiversity in Sarawak\u2019s oldest national park. \u201cWhen this policy takes effect, every visitor will need to engage the services of a park guide. Payments will be standardised to ensure fairness,\u201d he explained after officiating the Park Guide Training Course<a href=\"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/?p=33617\" class=\"read-more\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33618,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33617\/revisions\/33618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}