25Feb

Sabah looks to Europe to boost tourism

KOTA KINABALU: European tourists will be Sabah’s focus as it consolidates on strong annual tourist arrivals from China. The move is to further diversify its tourism market that was highly dependent on the thriving China tourist market, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew.
Liew, who is state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, said that it was important to balance out the tourism market by encouraging more western tourists to visit the state. “We will kick off our campaign to promote Sabah to other countries, starting with Germany in March. Year open house would be held on Feb 5 in the Hakka Hall here. “We are targeting more Europeans as we want to balance the numbers, not only increasing the number of Chinese tourists, but also American, European and Australian tourists, as well as those from Malaysia," she said. Liew was confident that Sabah was in the right position to draw in European tourists as there was connectivity with Royal Brunei Airlines and China Southern Airlines flying direct to Sabah. Dismissing claims that there was a drop in Chinese tourist arrivals in Sabah, she said that more then 500,000 tourists from China had visited Sabah last year, which surpassed the target. “We have yet to compile the arrivals for December 2018,” she said, adding that Chinese tourists were no longer just staying in Kota Kinabalu but were travelling to other parts of the state including northern Kudat, eastern Sandakan and Tawau. “Maybe people see fewer Chinese tourists in Kota Kinabalu and assume that there is a drop. They are coming and heading to other parts of the state,” she said. Liew also said that the state was expecting a large number of tourists coming for the Chinese New Year season next month. “Some of our top hotels are fully booked already,” she said, adding that Sabah receives some 117 direct flights from nine cities in China weekly.
Source: The Star Online
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25Feb

New dive site in Silam named ‘Journalist Reefs’

LAHAD DATU: A newly discovered dive site in Silam has been named ‘Journalist Reefs’, in recognition of the Sabah Media Divers for the year-long “End In Sipadan” dive campaign back in 2017. Pirate Divers founder Glen Hamirullah said the dive site was named after the local media for their contributions towards spreading the beauty of the undisturbed dive sites in Silam waters. “Journalist Reefs has a depth of between 27 and 30 metres, a dive site meant for advanced or experienced open water divers. “The dive site has huge corals on one site, while on the west one can see white sands and huge rocks,” he said, adding that among the marine habitats are blue and yellow-tail fusilier, stonefish, big eyed fish and nudibranch. The ‘Journalist Reefs’, said Glen, is one of the 55 dive sites discovered in Silam waters when Pirate Divers first began their operation in 2009. Gifted with underwater mapping talent without the need for sophisticated equipment or gadgets, the 56-year-old local-born dive instructor is known as one of the best underwater mapping divers in the country. He has mapped several hundreds of Malaysia’s most beautiful dive sites since 1997, and reckoned there were more beautiful and untouched dive sites that had yet to be explored in Lahad Datu. “Lahad Datu has many beautiful and undisturbed dive sites with coral reefs at depths of 27 to 30 metres. “Here at Silam waters, whale shark can be seen between March and May, while schools of tuna fish are found between October and December,” said Glen. One of the best dive sites in Silam is the ‘Japanese Timber Wreck’, a vessel that was sunken in the 1980s, now lying peacefully at a depth of 10 meters on the sea bed. Pirate Divers, which brings divers on a traditional fishing boat, is one of the operators featured in the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia year-long “End in Sipadan” campaign in 2017 to promote diving trails around Sabah. Source: Borneo Post Online
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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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19Feb

Sabah tourism sets new record in 2018, with China tourists leading charge

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s tourism has set a new record in 2018 with the highest tourism receipts ever at RM8.342bil on the back of a record-high 3.879 million arrivals. Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew said figures showed that from January to December, overall arrivals grew by 5.3% while tourism receipts increased by 6.6% compared with 2017 (RM7.83 billion).”
Overall 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 (STB) under her Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry. Liew said the top market source was China, which surpassed the half million mark in tourist arrivals with a total of 593,623 Chinese tourists visiting Sabah in 2018.
As of December 2018, direct flights from China to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA),totalled up to 125 flights per week, she said. The second highest 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%, she added. “I'm 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," said Liew. “We will be emphasising more on domestic tourism into Sabah since we have opened up many new tourism areas in the state’s interior and the east coast,” she said on Tuesday (Feb 19). Liew also said that 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 potential of pushing domestic tourism further. Last year, Liew said 19 more new direct international flights commenced services to Sabah, including the reinstatement of the Kota Kinabalu-Bangkok flight by Thai AirAsia. “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. “2018 was also a significant year 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 the charter flights brought passengers from China, South Korea and Japan.
Source: The Star Online
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