Tourism accreditation scheme will boost industry in Sabah

The Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry has encouraged owners of business premises especially those related to tourism to participate in the Accreditation Scheme introduced to boost tourism in Sabah. Sabah Tourism Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the scheme would evaluate participating tourism players on the quality of their services and products.

“The ministry is very comfortable with the programme which will value-add the services and types of businesses that can be offered to tourists.

“The displayed certificate will draw tourists to the premises as they could expect better service and reasonably-priced items,” he said to reporters at Sinsuran, here yesterday after launching the ‘Fair Trade Tourism Select – An Accredited Outlet’ and ‘Kadaiku’ (‘my shop’ in local dialect) owned by Sri Pelancongan Sabah Sdn Bhd and incidentally the first outlet to be accredited.

Meanwhile, Kota Kinabalu mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir said accredited business premises would be presented with a ‘Fair Trade Tourism Select’ sticker that is valid for one year.

He said 50 business premises including shopping outlets and eateries were expected to participate in the scheme this year.

According to him, the ‘Kadaiku’ which sells handicrafts that were 100 percent locally-produced, can be the role model to promote local products that reflected the state’s ethnic and cultural diversity.

Source: Bernama