25Feb

More tourists heading to Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah last year received the highest tourism receipts in its history – at RM8.342bil – and a record-high 3.879 million arrivals. Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew (pic) said figures showed that from January to December, total arrivals grew by 5.3% while tourism receipts increased by 6.6% compared with the figures in 2017.
The total gross international arrivals recorded a double-digit increase of 10.2% while domestic arrivals increased by 2.8%, said Liew, quoting statistics compiled by the Sabah Tourism Board under her Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry. Liew said China surpassed the half million mark with a total of 593,623 visitors to Sabah last year. As of December last year, Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) received 125 direct flights from China per week, she said. The second highest source of arrivals was still South Korea with an increase of 8.5% or a total of 337,100 visitors while the Singapore market grew by 9.1% last year, she added. “I am very pleased with our performance in 2018. It was a very good year for Sabah. As of today, we are now connected to 26 international destinations by 12 foreign carriers. “We will be emphasising more domestic tourism since we have opened up many new tourism areas in the state’s interior and the east coast,” she said yesterday. Liew also said there were currently 444 flights connecting Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Labuan to Sabah, with a seat capacity of close to 75,000 weekly, which reflected the potential for pushing domestic tourism further. Last year, Liew noted that 19 more new direct international flights commenced services to Sabah, including the reinstatement of the Kota Kinabalu–Bangkok flight by Thai AirAsia. Besides the direct flights, the rest of the services connected Sabah to international cities such as Beijing, Xiamen, Fuzhou (Xiamen Air), Singapore and Wuhan (Malindo Air), Shenzhen (China Southern Airlines, AirAsia), Macau and Kunming (AirAsia) and Muan (Jeju Air). Tawau, too, is expanding its connectivity with a direct flight to Kuching. Last year was also significant for charter flights as Sabah airports (KKIA and Sandakan) welcomed a total of 343 non-scheduled flights compared with 215 the year before, she said, adding that the charter flights brought passengers from China, South Korea and Japan. Source: The Star Online
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25Feb

Iconic three-decade Mt Kinabalu climbathon comes to an end

KOTA KINABALU: The iconic Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon, dubbed as Malaysia's toughest mountain race, will finally bring its curtains down after a 30-year run. Event race director, Zachary Mobijohn said the move to discontinue the prestigious race was decided as the objective of promoting Mount Kinabalu had been achieved. “Initially, the original purpose of organising the race was as a marketing tool to promote Mount Kinabalu. “We had achieved the objective and the mountain is being over promoted now,” he said, adding any event would definitely have a start and an end. Zachary added that the discontinuation of the Climbathon, is also aimed at preserving Mount Kinabalu’s status as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage. “Mount Kinabalu has its own carrying capacity or the maximum number of persons that can be at the mountain at one time. “There are also minimal development that can be done at the site,” he said, adding such controls would help to maintain the natural state of Sabah’s iconic landmark in long terms. On reactions over the cessation of the Climbathon, he said many of the race’s affiliations such as the Sabah Parks, International Skyrunning Federation and World Mountain Running Association among others have been informed about the decision. “Some of them were sad due to the discontinuation, but they do understand,” he said, adding the organiser would focus on other promotional events. The 30th Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon,which was held on Oct 15, 2017, saw Sabahan Safrey Sumping emerged champion when he clocked in at 2.18.28 for a shortened race route from Kinabalu Park to Panalaban, which stands 3,272 metres above sea level. The Climbathon saw 116 runners from 18 countries and locally vying for honours in Kundasang with temperature of 7 degrees Celsius at Panalaban. Source: New Straits Times
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29Oct

RM8b from tourism certain

Photo by Sabah Tourism Board
  Kota Kinabalu: Sabah is on track to achieve RM8 billion in revenue from tourism by the end of the year, said Deputy Chief Minister Christina Liew. Liew who is also State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister said up to August, Sabah Tourism Board (STB) estimated that the total tourism receipts have reached RM5.55 billion or 7.5 per cent more compared to the same period last year. "As of August this year, total tourist arrivals to Sabah increased 5.4 per cent or 2.56 million compared to the same period last year," she told a press conference on the Xiamen Airlines' inaugural Xiamen-Kota Kinabalu flight, here, Friday. "At least 417,574 or 45.2 per cent of these international arrivals came from China, making it the largest market source for international arrivals to Sabah. "We are still on target to achieve 500,000 China arrivals by the end of the year. "We will work closely with the office of the Chinese Consul-General to strengthen the Malaysia-China relations." She said, the ministry's aims is to re-emphasise tourism in the East Coast, especially in Tawau and Sandakan. "The Ministry is working on upgrading the airports in the East Coast to international status so that all the foreign airlines can establish a direct flight here. "Sabah's attractions vary from the West Coast to the East," she said. On the inaugural Xiamen-Kota Kinabalu flight on Oct. 28, Liew said it is the third direct flight by Xiamen Airlines to the city, after Fuzhou and Beijing. "With this additional connectivity, there will now be a total of 100 weekly direct flights from 12 major and secondary cities in China to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA). "I was told that Xiamen Airlines' network expands to over 55 Chinese cities with around 160 million population. "The airlines have both Xiamen and Fuzhou as transfer hubs of these 55 Chinese cities." She said, she was also informed that 80 per cent of passengers from the Fuzhou-Kota Kinabalu route are from Beijing and Northern Asia. "Therefore, the airlines' winter schedule may include daily flights from Beijing to Kota Kinabalu. "Xiamen Airlines is currently providing connections to 11 cities in South East Asia. "The airline's long haul connection to Europe, US and Australia, once strategically tapped, could be beneficial for Sabah. "All these potential arrivals, now have many options flying in," she said. Also present were Deputy Consul-General of China in Kota Kinabalu, Zhang He, and Xiamen Airlines (Kuala Lumpur Office) general manager Guo Yuan. - Ricardo Unto   Source : Daily Express
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05Sep

Hotel staff show artistic talents

SANDAKAN: Associates of The Four Points by Sheraton Sandakan initiated a drawing competition to commemorate the 61st Malaysian Independence Day. The theme, which is based on this year’s theme ‘Sayangi Malaysia Ku’ received an overwhelming response and the three external judges, Roslee Jaafar (professional art and culture), Emilina Gustin (head of dental unit) and Eva Mohamad (Zumba instructor and teacher), were captivated by the final products of the talented staff. Roslee complimented the hotel’s general manager, Peter Padman, for having such a motivated and joyful team of employees while commenting that he was in awe of the 10 final artworks which expressed so much detail and love by the associates for their much adored country, Malaysia. When asked why this drawing competition was organised, Peter said that his team had been working so hard over the past few months with so many new implementations within the company, and with the ongoing integration of Marriott International with Starwood, he felt that his fellow colleagues could do with a break from the daily routine which had somewhat been quite stressful lately. He added that the associates, who were a team of Malaysians, expressed so much passion and love for their country through the drawings and it was brought to reality that a picture does paint a thousand words. The competition, which was open to all 10 departments of the hotel, was won by the Human Resources Department, led by Haeruddin Nurdin, the Human Resources Manager. Their painting represented the various cultural and ethnic groups of the country who live in perfect harmony from the North to the South, from Perlis to Sabah. The various colours were explained in detail as to what it represented, while not forgetting the meaning of the Hibiscus as the National flower and the iconic KLCC tower that showed the progress and development of the country over the 61 years.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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28Aug

Captivating show

Kota Kinabalu: THE 100-minute spectacular full-length ballet production of Le Corsaire, a pirate's tale, kept the audience spellbound with dazzling costumes and a superb performance, emanating grace and pose, at the JKKN Auditorium, Kota Kinabalu, Friday night. With a 72-member cast (pic), including five principal dancers and professional ballerinas from Kuala Lumpur and two others from Ballet Manila Philippines, as well as 50 KK ballerinas, Le Corsaire is a fantasy tale of captive maidens and cutthroats, love and betrayal. Acts One and Two are based on an adventurous love story between a skilful pirate and an innocent and beautiful harem girl. It was part of this year's Annual Kota Kinabalu Arts Festival. Le Corsaire is an inaugural project of the IEC Heart for Arts Foundation in collaboration with City Ballet Performing Arts, Kuala Lumpur, under its Artistic Director Lu Wit-Chin. "The Foundation is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of IEC (a Centre for English Language and Further Studies Consultancy based in KK) to collaborate, produce and organise arts projects to benefit the local community," said its Executive Producer Jasmine Leong. The event was supported by the Society of Performing Arts Kota Kinabalu Sabah (SPArKS), and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment. At the end of the show, Jasmine thanked the appreciative audience, sponsors and media for their support. The matinee and second night show were held on Saturday. - Mary Chin   Source: Daily Express
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