25Feb

Homestay revenues may increase drastically

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Homestay Association (SHA) aims to increase the revenues of homestays in the State to RM10 million-RM20 million by 2025. Its president Djuanis Mogirong said it is not impossible to achieve this target provided there are strong support from the Federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry, and the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry to develop the rural tourism industry. “We can see a surge in tourist arrivals for homestays in the State, last year, with 70,083, as compared to 47,291 in 2017,” he said during a press conference, here, Thursday.   “The trend is soaring upwards and we can clearly see that there is a big potential in developing rural tourism, especially homestays. “The total receipts for homestays also witnessed a shocking increase to RM7.17 million, last year, from RM3.8 million in 2017.” Djuanis also disclosed that the homestays in the State are ranked top five in the country, with the exception of the top spot which was grabbed by a homestay in Pahang. Currently, there are 29 homestays in 50 villages, involving 394 operators in the State. These homestays offer some 687 rooms. Djuanis said the association had outlined several measures to achieve its target.   “SHA would like to help more potential communities or villages to join homestay programmes to achieve our target of getting 50-100 homestays in the State by 2025,” he said. The association also hoped that homestays in Sabah can be registered for Kampungstay programme this year. “Kampungstay is at another level where certified operators can provide more rooms for guests and this can offer bigger advantage for rural tourism players in the State. “Apart from that, we plan to hold an annual convention for homestays next year…it is a platform for international to converge and exchange information as well as share their success stories.” SHA, he said, has also discussed with Sabah Tourism Board (STB) to conduct the Visit Year Homestay Sabah 2022. Meanwhile, several homestays and community-based tourism associations made the State proud as they received international recognitions from two events, recently.   Announcing this, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew cum Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister said Kadamaian Tourism Association, Kota Belud received the Asean Community-Based Tourism Standard, Misompuru Homestay, Kudat obtained the Asean Homestay Standard and Jari Jari Spa, Kota Kinabalu grabbed the Asean Spa Services Standard. The awards were presented by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohammadin Ketapi at the Asean Tourism Ministers’ Conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Jan 18. “The second event was the World Homestay Organisation Summit for Tourism (World Host),” Liew said. Among the recipients were Misompuru Homestay, Seri Serbang Homestay, Mesilou Atamis Homestay, Tanak Nabalu Homestay, Walai Tokou Homestay and Taun Gusi Village Homestay. “This proves that our local tourism players are able to fulfilled international standards for their services and facilities. “I hope these awards will help to motivate other homestays and community-based tourism associations to improve.” She also pledged the ministry’s commitment to support the progress of homestays in the State. - Ricardo Unto Source: Daily Express
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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

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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07Sep

RM8 billion expected from Sabah’s tourism industry this year

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s tourism industry is expected to contribute RM8 billion in tourism receipts this year, said Deputy Chief Minister Christina Liew. Liew, who is also the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, said tourist arrivals to the State had been shown a steady growth from 3.4 million in 2013 to 3.7 million in 2017, with an increase in revenue contribution from RM6.35 billion to RM7.8 billion in the same period. “For 2018, we are looking at RM8 billion in tourism receipts.” For the first half of 2018, she said tourist arrivals into Sabah was registered at 1.892 million compared to 1.796 million for the same period last year, which marked an increase of 96,026 or 5.35 per cent. “International arrivals made up 16.57 per cent of this increase, with China market as the largest contributor to the increase foreign arrivals.” To further boost the tourism industry in Sabah, Liew said her ministry would continue its effort to attract more tourists from Asian countries, especially China, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as to increase the share of the European market. Liew stated that in her speech, which was delivered by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datu Rosmadi Datu Sulai, when launching the Seminar on Development of Sustainable Tourism in the Rural Areas of Sabah organized by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) Sabah in collaboration with the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) here yesterday. She said the ministry also planned to develop and promote other tourist destinations, especially in the east coast of Sabah including Tawau, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Sandakan to bring about more holistic approach to tourism development in Sabah. She said the east coast towns had not been performing well in the past due to security and safety reasons. Nonetheless, Liew said the situation in the east coast area had improved tremendously with new strategic measures put in place to boost the security of the coastal areas and the close cooperation between Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia in border security surveillance. She said many areas with potential for tourism development in the east coast towns could be turned into tourism destinations to cater to the increasing numbers of tourists arriving in Sabah. On another note, she emphasized on the need for Sabah to keep up with the advancement of technology in this digital and artificial intelligence (AI) era in order to remain competitive in the tourism industry and be on par with other destinations in the region. She said the tremendous growth in tourism sectors globally, including Sabah, was due to the strong market support and the advancement of digital technologies and AI. With the click of the internet, she said holiday seekers could access information about destinations, transportation, tour packages and accommodation. She stressed that the trend of going cashless and paying by payment apps for tourists from more technically advanced countries in the Asian region such as South Korea, China and Taiwan would become a normal feature in the tourism sector in the very near future. “Many tourism related business operators in Sabah are already embracing this mode of payment.” Also present were IDS Sabah chairman Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, IDS Sabah senior associate director Jenny Liaw and STB general manager Suzaini Datuk Sabdin Ghani.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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28Aug

Many Chinese tourists prefer to visit Sabah now – Consul General

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has become a popular tourist destination in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region, said the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Kota Kinabalu, Zhang He. “Instead of going to Japan and Korea, many Chinese tourists are coming to Sabah,” he said. As such, he hoped that the relevant parties would look into enhancing tourism facilities in the State, given the insufficient number of hotel rooms now. Zhang said the local media has a role to play in promoting exchanges between Malaysia and China. He said the Chinese consulate has maintained a good working relationship with the local media since its inception in Kota Kinabalu, adding that the reports by local journalists on their trip to China organized by the consulate recently had also achieved the desired effect. Zhang made the remarks during a courtesy call by Kota Kinabalu Journalists Association (KKJA) committee led by chairman Yong Ted Phen here yesterday to invite Zhang to KKJA’s 25th Anniversary Celebration cum Press Night at Hakka Hall on August 31. Yong said the consulate has graciously offered its sponsorship for the event, whereby part of the funds will be used for lucky draw prizes and the balance for study awards to KKJA members’ children next year. Yong also took the opportunity to brief Zhang on the history and functions of KKJA during the courtesy call and thanked the consulate for its support and sponsorship to the association. Also present were organizing chairman, Jimmy Goh, vice chairman Leopold Santos, secretary Chuah Kim Huat, treasurer Tang Pok Ngai and welfare officer James Tseu. During other courtesy calls made by the committee, KKJA legal advisor, Datuk Dr. Yee Moh Chai, who is also the chairman of Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia (SEDA), and honorary advisor, Li Su Fook, have also offered to sponsor the event. Source: The Borneo Post
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