Over one million visitors in three months
PENAMPANG: Local and foreign tour operators are key components to bringing in more international and domestic travellers into Sabah, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew.
Christina said platforms such as Matta Fair Sabah 2019, Malaysia’s number one consumer and travel and tourism fair has become an established and widely organized event that had increased participation from 102 booths in 2018 to 115 booths this year.
She said the fair, which included participants from Macao and Indonesia this year, continued to offer deals on airfares, hotel rates and travel packages that help to accelerate the tourism growth in Sabah.
“As one of the key contributors to the state GDP, we are aware of the importance of tourism to the state.
“Up to March 2019, Sabah had received 1,033,871 visitor arrivals with an increase of 9.1% compared to the same period in 2018; generating an estimated revenue of RM2.23 billion to the state,” she said.
“My Ministry through the Sabah Tourism Board will continue to do tourism promotion for the east coast of Sabah; this is to have a fair balance of tourists all over Sabah as well as giving business opportunities to the east coast,” she added.
“Therefore, we will introduce ‘Cuti-Cuti Tawau’ to highlight tourism options in the east coast of Sabah to ensure the target of four million local and international tourists can be achieved.
“The east coast of Sabah, especially the towns of Tawau, Semporna, Lahad Datu and Sandakan have many naturebased tourism attractions besides historical heritage,” she said.
According to Matta president Datuk Tan Kok Liang, there are 3,600 travel companies nationwide and there are 550 from across Sabah.
Matta Sabah Chapter chairman Lawrence Chin said the the Matta Fair Sabah managed to achieve sales of RM70 milion last year.
“For this year, we have 115 booths, and we hope we would reach a target of RM80 million sales,” he said.
“The three days of Matta Fair Sabah will promote not only outbound tourism but also local tourism, culture as well as practical training for tourism students to gain exposure in promoting consumer fairs as well as managing an event,” added Chin.