Industry players to help in east coast tourism devt

PENAMPANG: Industry players from Sandakan have been appointed into the Sabah Tourism Board in order to help the district’s tourism development, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew.

Christina said Sandakan has its own unique tourism products, which include its wildlife and ecotourism, in general.

“We will sit down with Sabah Tourism (Board), (MATTA president) Datuk Tan (Kok Liang) and his team to (discuss) how to package Sandakan and how to promote Sandakan to its maximum (potential).

“Sandakan does have its unique products that will fetch a lot of tourists, especially Europeans because they love the ecotourism. It is an issue of promoting them only, they already have the products. Just for us to promote it.

“We have officially appointed two industry players from Sandakan and the government had approved their appointments as issued,” added Christina, who is Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister in Sabah.

Christina said Tawau representations had also been appointed into the board.

“This is so that they can each bring in their problems and plans to the Sabah Tourism Board so that we can discuss about how best we coud deal with it,” she explained.

Meanwhile, on tourist boats that have been found to be still flouting the regulations recently, Christina said the matter had already been actioned by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Sabah branch office.

The tourist boats were caught violating the stipulated regulations during the latest “Ops Gelora” conducted by the marine police off Sungai Rampayan Laut waters between Kota Belud and Pulau Mantanani.

Among the offences detected in the 10am operation were having an expired fire extinguisher, overloading of passengers and failure to inform a change of skipper.

Sabah Marine Police (Region 4) Commander ACP Mohamad Pajeri Ali said the tourist boats’ licences would be referred to the Sabah Ports and Harbour Department for compound purposes.

He also said they would continue to conduct a similar operation throughout the Ramadan month to ensure maritime safety and security.