Budget 2016 will spur tourism development – Masidi

KOTA KINABALU: Budget 2016’s E-Visa, GST exemption for passengers on domestic Rural Air Services (RAS) routes and the establishment of tourism academies will help Sabah’s tourism development during the challenging economic period.

“Our price of exported products have gone down, our ringgit is down and so forth. I do not have high expectations but at the same time I am happy that there are some things that have been decided by our Prime Minister cum Finance Minister that can help intensify tourism,” said Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun after the Borneo Safari launch here yesterday.

Prime Minister Datuk Najib Tun Razak announced in the 2016 budget that the online visa application, E-Visa, will be launched in mid-2016 to help encourage the expected RM103 billion economic contribution to the country.

The E-Visa will be open to China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, United States and Canada.

“I think this (E-Visa) is a good thing because we have acknowledged that the traveling trend has changed as there are more FIT (Fully Independent Traveller), which are tourists traveling alone instead of in a big group. This is exactly what we want, to give convenience to the people who come as it will enable them to make their own arrangements instead of going through the tour agents,” Masidi said.

The minister also lauded the RM80 million allocation to establish a Tourism Academy at the Community College in Kota Kinabalu and Vocational College in Sandakan as well as the Industrial Training Institute in Serian, Sarawak as it will improve the quality of service rendered by tourism industry operators to the tourists.

On the GST exemption for economy class passengers on Rural Air Services (RAS) domestic routes, Masidi said it will encourage travel to second tier cities that are mainly located in rural areas.

“I think this is something that will benefit, first, the rural population, and encourage tourists to not only pay attention to big cities but also divert it to rural areas. This will directly benefit the cities and small towns, especially those who are in the homestay business,” he said.

Source: Borneo Post