22Oct

Sabah Tourism website wins award

SINGAPORE: Sabah Tourism Board won the Best Tourism Board Website award for Asia Pacific from TravelMole-ITB Asia Awards 2019. The others shortlisted were Langkawi and Tourism Thailand. “We are thrilled to receive this award. STB has continuously improved the website to be on par with the new trends. We are currently focusing on the way we position our content. “For example, we recently highlighted the various Volunteer Tourism options available in Sabah and Self-Guided Tours. This is something commonly asked,” said Noredah Othman, General Manager of Sabah Tourism Board. “Among our contributors for content besides managing this solely inhouse, are the online writers, bloggers and travel agents with blogs,” she said.“On average, we have 30,000 unique visitors mainly from Malaysia, Singapore, US, UK and Australia. In addition to the general website, we maintain sites in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.” TravelMole’s 65,000 travel trade Asia Pacific newswire subscribers were asked to place their nominations in July.  A group of travel experts determined a shortlist for each category in September. Source: Daily Express
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12Apr

Sabah tourism rankings up

Kota Kinabalu: Real ratings and comments by travellers are driving Sabah's property rankings upwards on the world's largest travel review website, TripAdvisor, in their 2018 Traveller's Choice Awards. Top performing Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort is fifth best for Top 25 Luxury Hotels in Malaysia, whereas Lankayan Island Dive Resort is ninth place for Top 10 Small Hotels Malaysia. Shangri-La Rasa Ria is also overall Top 25 Hotels in Malaysia (11). In service rankings, both Rasa Ria and Lankayan Island Resort are number 13 and 23 respectively in Malaysia. Upcoming operator Bike and Tours Bed & Breakfast (Lahad Datu) is the best in Malaysia for Top B&Bs and Inns Malaysia. Hotel Grandis is tenth best for Top 10 Value for Money Hotels. Sabah is also recognized for Top 25 Hotels for Romance with seven properties listed namely; (10) Sepilok Nature Resort, Sandakan; (18) Gaya Island Resort; (19) Lankayan Island Dive Resort; (21) Eden 54; (23) Four Points by Sheraton, Sandakan; (24) The Reef Dive Resort (Mataking); and (25) Bunga Raya Island Resort. Sabah Tourism General Manager Suzaini Sabdin Ghani said that the industry is competitive, as these are the kind of awards programs that are sought after now that travellers are making their own travel choices based on real comments and reviews shared on platforms like TripAdvisor. "The properties mentioned are located all around Sabah from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu to Sandakan which shows that even attractions all around Sabah are getting the exposure it deserves. STB encourages the industry to target rankings that will make them and the destination truly visible." added Suzaini. Source: Daily Express
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06Mar

Sabah bags five tourism awards

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah won five awards at the Biennial Malaysia Tourism Awards held recently. According to a statement, out of the 600 over nominations and 16 categories, North Borneo Railway won the Best Tourist Attraction (Man-Made Attraction), Borneo Rainforest Lodge won the Best Hotel Services (3-star Resort) and Sticky Rice's Orou Sapulot 3D2N won the Most Innovative Tour Package (Off-the-Beaten Track). Two articles about Sabah won the Best Tourism Article in both the international and local categories of the Online Publication written by Tripzilla and Ramble and Wander, respectively. Under Best Foreign Tour Operators, strong supporters of Sabah, namely Lion Travel Service Co Ltd (Taiwan), H.I.S Co Ltd (Japan) and Hana Tour Service Inc (Korea), won for the East Asia and North Asia Markets category. State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who attended the event, said the tourism industry must continue to be innovative and strive to excel in all aspects, including digital marketing as their new way of promotion. He congratulated all the winners. Also present at the event were Sabah Tourism General Manager Suzaini Datuk Sabdin Ghani and Deputy General Manager Noredah Othman. Source: Daily Express
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26Oct

Ctrip awards Hotel Grandis “Best Family Hotel” 2017

KOTA KINABALU: Hotel Grandis has been awarded “Best Family Hotel” for 2017 by Ctrip with a guest score of 4.7 out of 5 and 97 per cent guest recommendation rate. Ctrip, founded in 1999 with its headquarters in Shanghai, is a leading online travel platform in China, with more than 90 million registered members in addition to 5,000 member hotels available domestically and overseas. This year, Ctrip invited 12 Malaysian hotel operators to attend their 2nd Ctrip Global Hotel Partners Summit. Four of these hotel operators were from Sabah, and the others were from Penang, Langkawi, Johor and Kuala Lumpur. The summit also included a tour of Ctrip headquarters to further understand their operations and administrative process of room reservations. During the summit, Ctrip released its “2017 One Belt One Road Travel Report” which among others stated that outbound Chinese travellers increased 71 per cent in 2016 compared to the previous year. And, Chinese travellers to Malaysia went up 129 per cent, followed by Thailand (up 91 per cent), and Singapore (up 47 per cent). The general manager of Hotel Grandis in Kota Kinabalu, Michael Tan received the award on behalf of Grandis Hotels and Resorts. “We are thankful to the China travellers who recognised Hotel Grandis as their preferred hotel. We also appreciate our associates for their continuous support in providing distinctive service to our guests,” Tan said. Source : New Sabah Times
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12Sep

Sabahan gets US conservation award

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabahan wildlife conservationist focused on preserving the highly endangered pangolins has been named a recipient of the Houston Zoo Wildlife Warrior Award. Elisa Panjang, 33, was among five wildlife conservationists from Africa, Asia and South America named for the award. According to the Houston Zoo website, the award is to honour outstanding conservationists from developing countries instrumental in protecting their local wildlife. The zoo, the second most visited in the United States with 2.55 million visitors, supports over a dozen conservation projects around the world.
 Elisa, who is the pangolin conservation officer at the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Kinabatangan, said she would use the fund from the award to support her training at a rescue centre in Vietnam or any other place.
“The award will definitely raise the profile of the pangolin locally as well as internationally. The zoo recognised the importance of pangolin research in our country. Malaysia should do the same by supporting local researchers,” said Elisa, thanking DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens for nominating her. “I hope that this international recognition will inspire our youths to get involved in science and conservation issues,” she said. Dr Goossens said the visit to the rescue centre would enable the Sandakan-born Elisa to learn more about its captive breeding programme. “I believe that a captive breeding programme of pangolins in Sabah will be one of the solutions to save them from extinction,” he said of the animal, widely known as the most trafficked mammal in the world. “We don’t have data to show their decline but the reality is that it is almost impossible to survey pangolins in the wild. “They rarely appear in our camera traps,” said Dr Goossens. Source : The Star
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