Seminar, workshop on sustainable tourism today
The KinabatanganCorridor of Life Tourism Operator Association (KiTA) will be continuing its collaboration with Borneo Tourism Research Centre, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) in organising a seminar and workshop on sustainable tourism today (October 17) and tomorrow at Hilton Hotel, Kota Kinabalu.
The seminar and workshop entitled ‘Enhancing Profitability through Sustainable Growth and Practices in Travel and Tourism: Embracing the Global Sustainable Standards’, will be the third collaboration between KiTA and the Borneo Tourism Research Centre, UMS.
In the past, they have jointly conducted visitors satisfaction studies of guests visiting the tourism lodges located along Lower Kinabatangan area and even held public talks to share the findings.
“KiTA is glad to have been collaborating with UMS towards conducting guests experiences findings along the lower Kinabatangan for the past three years now,” said President of KiTA, Alexander Yee.
“While these findings have been presented to a limited audience before, it is timely for a larger scale seminar to be held in Sabah. Sabah’s tourism industry is experiencing a boom cycle now, therefore, it is imperative that we put in place measures and management steps towards preserving and protecting the very tourism assets that contributed towards the tourism boom,” he commented. KiTA is one of the event’s major sponsors.
The seminar, which is expected to be officiated by Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Christina Liew, will showcase an excellent collaborative and partnership endeavour between public and private sectors championing tourism current issues.
The seminar and workshop mark an initiation in transforming Sabah as a green destination. It aims to expose and nurture key tourism players on the importance of embracing global sustainable standards and practices in the respective tourism operations and management.
Subsequently, sustainable training sessions will be conducted for tourism players followed by an auditing and accreditation process.
A team of renowned speakers from overseas and from Sabah have been invited to present their experiences and they include: Dr Mihee Kang, Director of Asia Pacific - Global Sustainable Tourism Council; Masaru Takayama, Chairman of Asia Ecoturism Nework; Albert Teo, Managing Director of Borneo Ecotour Tours; Julinus Jeffrey Jimit, Senior Manager of Sabah Tourism Board; Augustime Tuuga, Director of Sabah Wildlife Department; Ludi Apin, Park Manager of the Sabah Park and Linda Peecoraro, General Manager of Hilton, Kota Kinabalu.
“This seminar and workshop present an impeccable and valuable learning opportunity, and is a very significant and meaningful one to everyone here as ‘Profitability through sustainable growth and practices’ is pertinent to all tourism players in particular within Sabah context,” Yee said.
For those interested to attend or obtain further information, please contact +088 320 000 Ext 1629/1527 or simply email btrc@ums.edu.my.