Matta Fair Sabah expects RM5m to RM8m sales
Kota Kinabalu: Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Fair Sabah, which is now in its sixth year, anticipates to post steady sales despite a lower number of booths this time.
This year, there are only 97 booths with 48 exhibitors as opposed to 114 booths with 42 exhibitors previously.
Matta Sabah Chapter Chairman Robert Chong projected the fair will generate around RM5 to 8 million in sales over this weekend.
This is roughly the same quantum the fair made last year. Visitors to the fair can get the best deals in travel to various destinations in the world.
“The Matta Fair is an important income generating activity for the many service related sectors in the travel and tourism industry.
“We in Matta Sabah Chapter believe there will be huge economic spin-offs arising from this fair, which is one of the projects that Matta Sabah is proud of,” he said during the opening of the fair here, Friday.
Also present at the event was Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun and Tourism and Culture Ministry (Motac) Sabah Director Ag Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar. Among the participants include airline companies, namely, Silk Air, Royal Brunei Airlines, Indonesian Tourism and Taiwan Tourism.
According to Masidi, the presence of the foreign tourism bodies is a sign of confidence that tourism In Sabah is doing quite well.
Meanwhile, the Minister also expanded the advice of Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar on those who wanting to travel to isolated regions in Sabah to notify the police of their intent. This comes in view of the missing four individuals identified as Spaniards David Hernades Gasulla and his wife Martha Miguel, a 45-year-old Chinese national Tommy Lam Wai Yin and a 23 year-old Malaysian identified as Armella Alihasan, also known as Miss Ella.
Masidi said this after noting that the four were not out on a tour excursion, but instead on a private outing, saying the four were friends. He denied the issue was related to any illegal tour and there had been no presence of illegal guides as claimed.
“They went there as friends. The issue whether they are illegal tour operators doesn’t arise. It is not an excursion.
I don’t think she (Ella) is a guide. She is a friend of one of the three individuals. They were trying to see a cave in Pulau Balambangan,” he said.
Ag Ahmad, who carried out the investigation on Thursday, also echoed Masidi’s statement, adding that no parties should be making allegations over the incident.
He noted that the claim by the Sabah Tourist Guides Association that Miss Ella was an illegal tourist guide would only aggravate the situation and hurt her family, saying the last thing her parents would want to find out was that she was involved in some form of illegal operation
Source: Daily Express
