KUCHING, MALAYSIA: Sarawak expects a 30% increase in arrivals from Singapore following a fourth airline servicing the Singapore-Kuching route.

State Tourism and Urban Development Minister Datuk Michael Manyin said if the state could tap 3% of the seven million tourists from Europe, Japan, South Korea and Australia visiting Singapore annually, it would help boost its tourism industry.

He was speaking to reporters after welcoming 177 passengers on board the Tiger Airways inaugural flight that landed at the Kuching International Airport on Thursday afternoon.

The other airlines providing the Singapore-Kuching direct service are Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and SilkAir.

Last year, Sarawak recorded some 33,000 visitors from the republic.

Sarawak Tourism Board chief executive officer Gracie Geikie urged local hoteliers to offer special rates to visitors from Singapore to reciprociate what their counterparts had done for visitors from Sarawak.

She said the state has about 5,500 hotel rooms of three-star status and above.

Geikie said 3,000 more rooms would be ready in the next two years with the completion of several new hotels here.