by Karen Bong. Posted on July 8, 2012, Sunday

THE Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) has been listed as the Top 25 Best International Festivals for three consecutive years since 2009 by world music magazine Songlines.

IMPRESSIVE: An artist’s impression of the STB booth to be set up at the main entrance of the Sarawak Cultural Village.

This popular festival is more than just celebrating world music diversity. With it comes arts, talents, cultures, history and friendship.

The annual three-day festival is now one of the largest musical events in Malaysia capable of attracting worldwide participation.

thesundaypost talked to Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) chief executive officer (CEO) Dato’ Rashid Khan recently to see how far this iconic event, now into its 15th edition, has evolved and developed.
How would you rate the success of RWMF in terms of its contributions to Sarawak’s tourism?

It’s a very successful event that has gained international recognition with Songlines and many other awards. Also, we have government support. The state cabinet is happy with our results and has increased STB’s annual allocation to RM10 million from 2013 to 2015. The Board was allocated RM9 million last year and RM8 million this year.

We managed to increase tourist arrivals by16 per cent last year to RM3.8 million – a 23 per cent jump.

The spin-off alone was about RM37 million in 2011 with expenditure at about RM3 million. We need to climb the value chain as we have reached the maturity level and need to move to a higher level now. Through this, we are building a foundation and creating a brand for the event. We are anchoring the event by holding it at the same time every year for 15 years now. Part of our ambition is to grow the ambition, realise the vision and create other spin-offs.
What is the evolution of RWMF’s business strategy since it first started in 1997?

We maintain and sustain the interest and appeal of this iconic event by being innovative and creative with aim to move it to the next (higher) level.

In RWMF development, we try to put together various agendas from time to time by considering both local and global issues. Our philosophy is guided by our positioning of this theme – Sarawak, where adventure lives.

We want people to come to Sarawak and experience the adventure but we cannot lose sight of the importance of preserving traditional and ethnic music and instruments.

With international recognition, many tour companies in countries like Australia, Europe and Singapore have packaged this event for three days and two nights.

Angelina Bateman, STB director of Corporate Communications, did a lot of promotion outside Sarawak by engaging with the customers, maintaining media relation and distributing information on RWMF and other events as well. Much of our work is focused on the global market because of our role to promote tourist and visitor arrivals. We must define our customers’ needs and expectations to stay alive in the market.

The media and bloggers play an important role in pushing our products locally and overseas as they are capable of influencing customers.

One of our strategies is to collaborate with various parties. A lot of stakeholders are involved in running RWMF because no one man can run a big show alone.

 

You talk about business sustainability. Please share with us what have been done to enhance this.

We have the Talent Search competition. We need more people like Mathew Ngau to further expand our product. The project is organised in collaboration with the private sector – Sara Urus Harta, a subsidiary of Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), and the Board’s subsidiary, STB Leisure and Property.

Initially started on the island of Borneo – Sarawak to be precise – talents from the surrounding areas such as Sabah, Kalimantan and Brunei also seized the opportunity to be part of the Festival.

Everyone wants to be part of this iconic event with many knocking on our door and sending letters to express their intentions to participate. Being able to perform in RWMF is like adding a feather to their cap.

A RM3,000 prize money is offered to the winner who also gets to perform on the RWMF stage during the Sunset Concert before the main concert.

And as the event continues to grow, we are hoping to make it a bigger event within the next five years, perhaps even bigger than the Rainforest by turning it into some sort of an Asia Pacific event.

This is one of the strategies to sustain our business and create a bigger platform for new players, passionate about traditional music and its preservation, to showcase their talents.

Local and major world universities have sent students for three-to-six- months attachment with STB. Due to placement constraints, only six interns are accepted per intake. Such attachment is sought after by the Ivy League universities in the UK as it offers students a real working environment coupled with hands-on experience in managing a global event.

Management and organisation of a global event is complicated – from planning to sales, marketing to preparations and full operation until the event draws the curtains.

Interns will be given projects to handle and manage with the knowledge gained from their studies. One of our business’ most important aspects is ‘customer management’ because customers are the result of our profits and benefits.

STB is happy to provide interns with the platform to share their knowledge on managing a global event and, in turn, benefit from their creativity, expertise, professionalism and quality of education.

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