Be creative to boost tourism

Sabah should consider introducing sea or water taxi services in the state capital to solve traffic congestion, Tourism, Cultural and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said yesterday.

“We can have lepa lepa (Bajau traditional boats) or motorboats and it will be an incentive for us to clean up all the rubbish in the water… we should look into this,” Masidi said after relaunching the North Borneo Railway here yesterday.

He said Sabah needs to be more innovative and creative to achieve greater results in terms of its urban, tourism and transportation development.

“We can’t be doing the same thing all over and expecting different results. It doesn’t work that way because if you want different results, you need to be creative.”

On urban development, he stressed that the city authorities should relook some of the developments that had taken place.

These included the growing number of multi-storey buildings within the city in the 12 years since Kota Kinabalu obtained city status.

Masidi pointed out that buildings should have an artistic value that reflected the inner beauty of the city people.

“Unfortunately, development is seen as making more money and constructing more buildings, and the taller the building, the better. That seems to be the epitome of this so-called physical development.

“However, in my opinion, we must build a development that enhances the life of the city and adds value to what we already have in the city.

“To this, the people of Sabah need to have a holistic view of the entire city development and not just some component of it or looking at it on an ad-hoc basis.

“So, eventually, the city authorities not only need to approve buildings but I think they need to build a city that represents the people,” Masidi said.

“Building a city can be seen in two different ways, to put more buildings or to allow just sufficient buildings to make Kota Kinabalu as liveable a city as you can have.”

Source: New Straits Times