28Jun

Sabah set to attract more visitors from India

KOTA KINABALU: An India-based travel media company, Travel Earth, has brought a group of social media influencers to Sabah to promote the region as a destination for Indian travellers. During their visit to the state, the delegates witnessed various aspects of Sabah culture to promote their experience via social media platforms such as their blogs, YouTube and Instagram. They also joined local influencers in a Digital Influencer’s Convention here, where invited speakers spoke on topics such as Millennials travel trends, interests and leveraging marketing through technology. State Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Assaffal P. Alian said Sabah was making an effort to expand its tourism market and was eyeing more tourists from India. “Last year, travellers from India made up 0.41 per cent of the international arrivals to Sabah. “India is the most populous country after China and is projected to be the next outbound phenomenon for the travel market. “There are more than 200 flights between various cities in India to Kuala Lumpur and we hope to leverage on this existing traffic. “There is so much potential for us to tap into this market to further introduce Sabah to a new market segment,” Assafal said at the convention’s launch here today. The event was supported by Sabah Tourism Board, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta), Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria, Air Asia, Malaysia Airlines, Malindo Air, and Make My Trip. According to statistics furnished by Matta, Indian tourist arrivals to Malaysia last year totalled 595,000 and about 6,000 Indian citizens visited Sabah. “Digital influencers are powerful in creating awareness to attract Indian holiday makers to Sabah. Through conventions like this, it will promote Sabah as a vibrant and new product potential for Indian tourists,” said Tan. Travel Earth co-founder Arun Raghu said Indians did travel to Malaysia, but not many were aware of Sabah as a tourist destination. He said the state has so much potential, which could be interesting and appealing for Indian travellers as they were constantly looking for new destinations. Source: New Straits Times
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22Jan

New Sabah International Convention Centre to be completed in 10 months

KOTA KINABALU: The state’s upcoming new landmark, the Sabah International Convention Centre, is expected to be ready within 10 months, says Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman. “The construction is still ongoing and we hope it will be completed according to schedule. “The centre will be timely for us, as it can host meetings, conferences and exhibitions even at international level, as the state currently lacks a huge venue for these events,” he said, adding the state government has extended its gratitude to the federal government over the RM250 million contribution for the centre. Musa was speaking to reporters after inspecting the construction progress at the site. Also present were state cabinet ministers, Yayasan Sabah Group director Datuk Sapawi Ahmad, members of the Sabah Chamber of Commerce, and the Sabah Chinese Chambers Association. He added besides exhibitors and performers, the centre will also provide job opportunities for locals. The centre, owned by state-operated Yayasan Sabah, will have a 20,400 square exhibition area including the hall, 22 meeting rooms, an open plaza for outdoor exhibitions, as well as a convention hall. Its two-tier performing arts hall can cater for 1,200 audiences, four simultaneous interpretation booths, built-in stage with technologically advanced audio visual and stage lighting, rehearsal room and ample holding storage. Source: New Straits Times
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06Sep

Potential sport tourism product

Kota Kinabalu: Anime, Cosplay and Gaming conventions like the ongoing OtaFuse 2017 in Suria Sabah have huge potential to be a Sport Tourism product that can attract international visitors. OtaFuse 2017 is a two-day event exhibition focusing on Japanese Pop Culture organised by the Japanese Animation and Comic Fan Club Sabah for the seventh time this year since 2010. Its organiser Mohd. Hanafi Light said they are expecting about 3,500 visitors excluding participants, this year. "This is all started from passion where we gather people who like Anime and Japanese Culture into one place to meet new friends and showcase their talents. "This is an event where youth would normally attend but we get older participants who are really into the culture, so we plan to express the youth's talent with the Ministry of Tourism and Information now fully supporting us in hope we could attract more and more people. "We also hope that the Youth and Sports Ministry will support us in future that we will be able to achieve a goal of 50,000 visitors like the ACG event in Kuala Lumpur," said Hanafi. Hanafi also added that Suria Sabah had fully sponsored the venue as this will be the third time using the Exhibition Hall. Another highlight of the convention was the special guest's like cosplayer BaoBao from Hong Kong, Rikka from Kuala Lumpur and special guest cosplayer Yuriko Tiger, an Italian talent and model who is currently working at Japan. Yuriko said this is her first convention abroad and had never been to Kota Kinabalu before but she was very happy to see the amount of fans coming to the event to meet and greet her further adding that the locals here are very friendly. Another Cosplayer, Rangga Kanchiel, said he came all the way from Bandung, Indonesia to participate in OtaFuse 2017. "I am surprised by the number of participants here on how friendly and passionate they are since I have once participated in the C2E2 Comic and Entertaintment Expo in Chicago, U.S.A. Meanwhile, two tournaments were hosted during OtaFuse, popular fighting game Tekken 7 and The Lab: Longbow Virtual Reality exposing the hidden talent of the ever-rising popularity of E-Sports. Virtual Dimension co-founder Geoffrey Sinn said that he is surprised that not many people in KK have ever experienced VR technology before and is glad to showcase his exhibition booth during the event. "Doing this roadshow is a good thing as we get to introduce new technologies to the people where they may acknowledge the existence of VR but have never experienced it before," said Geoffrey. Other highlights of the event were the Arts & Crafts Alley featuring local artists showcasing their artworks, as well as booths selling Japanese Anime merchandises and hobby collectibles. - Locksley Ng Source: Daily Express
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