Sabah receives 7.8% more tourists

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah recorded 3.315 million tourists arrivals as of November 2017, which was an increase of 7.8 per cent compared to the same period in the year before, said Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Pang Yuk Ming.

Of the 3.315 million tourists, international arrivals constituted 1.1 million visitors, marking an increase of 7.6 per cent, while domestic arrivals went up by 7.9 per cent to 2.215 million visitors.

“The highest number of international tourists come from China with 394,504 visitors with an increase of 14.7 per cent.

“This is followed by 278,615 Korean tourists, which has increased by 57.3 per cent; and 56,792 Taiwanese tourists with 13.2 per cent increase,” Pang said in an interview here yesterday.

Based on the figures, Pang said his ministry estimated tourist arrivals from China to register an increase of 15 per cent to 430,000 visitors for 2017, whereas the number of Korean tourists was expected to reach 300,000.

Pang said the 57 per cent increase of Korean tourist arrivals was due to the availability of more direct flights.

“There are six direct flights from Korea to Sabah daily.

“These direct flights from Korea offers opportunities for more Koreans to visit Sabah.”

On another note, Pang said Sabah needed more resorts to cope with the amount of tourists.

“At present, there are 12,000 three to five-star hotel rooms in Sabah.

“The shortage of hotel rooms occur mainly in Kota Kinabalu and Semporna.

“We need more resorts in Sabah now, not city hotels,” he said.