Sapi the most favourite island among visitors

Kota Kinabalu: A TOTAL of 396,097 people visited the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park last year, most of them foreigners.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun (pic) said 60 per cent of the visitors were foreigners with the most favourite stop being Pulau Sapi.

The Marine Park is a cluster of islands – Pulau Gaya, Pulau Sapi, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sulug.

“A total of 161,761 or 41 per cent visited Pulau Sapi, followed by Pulau Manukan with 122,070 or 31 per cent and Mamutik (96,519 or 24 per cent, while the rest went to Gaya Island,” he said in reply to questions from Bongawan Assemblyman Mohamad Alamin during question time at the State Assembly.

He noted the marine park is most popular among Chinese nationals who prefer to visit the islands rather than tourist spots like Ranau, adding overcrowding on most of the islands is still manageable.

He said Sabah Parks had formulated the Park Development and Management Plan in 2015 to oversee the management of local parks, including Tunku Abdul Rahman, to conserve the island while carrying out tourism activities.

For the marine park, he said this includes categorically zoning the islands for recreation and tourism, diving, resorts and visitors will be ferried to island destinations according to their designs.

This will also assist the park in enforcing a carrying capacity on the islands.

Masidi said service operators will also be limited to two by middle of this year to limit the number of food traders who had contributed a lot to the degradation of the islands.

“We will carry out an open tender for this process and only two service providers will be allowed to operate on the islands,” said Masidi, adding that lastly, the ministry will raise the conservation fees charged to visitors.

“Now Malaysians only pay RM3 while foreigners are charged RM10. We have not reviewed this for the last 15 years.

The park also requires money to manage this marine park,” he said.

Masidi said Sabah Parks also constantly carries out scientific observation on the degradation of the islands, the main worry involving the marine park being coral bleaching caused by global warming and floating rubbish on the sea.

Meanwhile, Masidi said his ministry will not hesitate to recommend the closure of the fishermen’s jetty used as a tourist jetty within the Tanjung Aru water village if safety and cleanliness are not up to par.

He maintained the safety of visitors is most paramount.

Earlier, Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Kamarlin Ombi revealed the fishermen’s jetty in the village was built by the Malaysian Fisheries Development Board in 2013 and handed over to the Tanjung Aru Fishermen Association to manage.

He said in an effort to improve their livelihood and ensuring the jetty is well maintained the association had collaborated with a tourism operator in February 2014 to ferry tourists to the marine park.

However, he noted City Hall, which has purview over the jetty, has not approved the move and thus does not guarantee the safety of tourists using the jetty, saying it was built specifically for fishermen.

“Following recent media reports, the ministry has initiated several meetings with the Tourism and Culture Ministry, City Hall and Ports and Harbour Department and has requested City Hall to re-evaluate the location suitability of the facility and the Ports and Harbour Department to audit the safety level of the jetty,” he said.

Source : Daily Express