Sabah targets 3.85 mln tourist arrivals by year-end
THE Sabah Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment is targeting 3.85 million tourist arrivals and RM8.154 billion in estimated revenue by the year-end.
Its minister, Datuk Christina Liew said Sabah received 2,865,322 tourists in the first nine months of this year, making up 74.4 per cent of the targeted number compared with 2,726,788 in the same period last year.
"Within that period this year, there were 464,271 tourist arrivals from China, an increase by 40 per cent, while tourist arrivals from South Korea increased by 8.4 per cent to 244,230," she said at the state assembly sitting, here, yesterday.
She was responding to a question from Datuk Jahid Jahim (PBS-Tamparuli) on whether tourist arrivals in Sabah had reached the targeted number this year.
Liew, who is also Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, said the increase in tourist arrivals this year was also due to the increase in new air services, with seven international flights from Kunming, Chengdu, Changsha, Xiamen, Beijing, Macau and Bangkok.
She noted that Sabah is also connected to 24 other international destinations such as Brunei, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Jakarta, Manila, Tokyo, Perth, Singapore, Seoul, Busan, Taipei, Bangkok and Tarakan (North Kalimantan) via 216 direct flights weekly with the capacity to carry 37,210 passengers.