Sabah attracts interest of European travellers
BERLIN: How do we get to Sabah? What airlines fly to Sabah? How do we get to see the orangutan? What are the attractions in Sabah?
Against a backdrop of questions posed by new tour and travel agents, travellers, influencers and even journalists at the recent ITB Berlin 2024 in Germany, and Sabah Tourism Board (STB) Tourism Promotion Mission to Hungary, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Christina Liew said it positively signified an interest in travelling to Sabah and exploring this destination.
She described ITB Berlin 2024, being the world’s leading travel trade show , as a “onestop centre” for travel agents, tour operators, travellers, and international relations experts as well, to explore tourism products and services, and tour packages offered by existing and (new) travel destinations.
“As such, it was the right platform for tourism stakeholders and travellers (who know nothing or very little about Sabah) to educate themselves or seek help from marketing managers in the Sabah delegation at the Malaysia Pavilion.”
The newly-launched Sabah Tourism Board’s (STB) multilingual Sabah Brochure (translated into German, Dutch, French and Spanish) is a great help, she said.
“These four additional languages complement the existing brochures, which are currently available in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.”
At the Sabah Tourism Destination Presentation for 31 local tour and travel agents in Budapest, Hungary, which generated great interest in Sabah (as a new travel destination), Richard Haris (Head of Association of Hungary Travel Agents - Outbound Travel) asked : “When is the best time to go to Sabah, and when should we go?” Some had the misperception that four different seasons prevailed in Sabah.
Given the exposure, the Minister, who encouraged Hungarian holiday-makers to make a trip to Sabah, is upbeat about tourist arrivals from European countries (including Hungary and Scandinavia made up of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland) for the rest of the year.
“If you look at the statistics (prepared by the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) Research Division), you will see an upward trend of tourist arrivals from the UK & Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France and Italy (in the order of precedence) in 2023 compared to 2022 (following the sharp decline in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic),” she said, adding that the most encouraging recovery rate (2023 versus 2019) is that of the Netherlands (4708 versus 5743) at 122 per cent. This is followed by Italy (3308 versus 2923) at 114 per cent, France (4854 versus 5219) at 93 per cent, UK & Ireland (24,727 versus 29,575) at 84 per cent, and Germany (6454 versus 8534) at 76 per cent.
In view of Germany being the second highest in terms of tourist arrivals to Sabah from the European market in 2023 (after UK & Ireland), Liew wants STB and tourism players to engage more with the German market, among others.
Despite its (ITB Berlin) inception back in 1966, we still had German, Danish, Italian and Swiss nationals (among others), saying they had not heard of Sabah when met at the travel trade show. Some others are familiar with cities in Malaysia (but not Sabah).
An Italian visitor said he heard the name “Malaysia” (but not Sabah) from his father who attended an international dental trade fair in Malaysia many years ago. Tunisian travel agent Sahar Kadri heard about Sabah during her trip to Malaysia in 2019, visiting places like Langkawi, Penang and Kuala Lumpur. In the words of one lady travel blogger, she did hear about Sabah from fellow travel bloggers who had been to this part of the world. Martin Widenka, a German general manager of an agency for influencer and social media marketing, related how he set foot on Borneo 15 years ago, and visited Kalimantan, but stopped short of hopping over to Sabah.
After making 25 trips to Indonesia yearly over the years, Oskar Savarin, a tour and travel agent from Slovenia, has turned his attention to The Land Below The Wind. “I want to promote Sabah. I am looking into opening Sabah as a new destination for my guests. I plan to start bringing groups into Sabah this October and November,” he enthused.
When interviewed, a Dutch blogger Ingmar Bruinsma said: “The average tourist does not know Sabah. I am not an average tourist. As a journalist, I travel to many places, so I know about Sabah. Some think that Sabah is part of Indonesia. We know Sabah is part of Malaysia.”
However, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, some European journalists admitted that they were not aware of the existence of Sabah. However, a handful know about Borneo; therefore, Sabah’s new destination tagline - Feel Sabah, North Borneo (launched by Minister Liew at ITB Berlin 2023) - is very much relevant and shows the connection. For sure, Borneo is a totally brand new market for first-timers to the ITB Berlin 2024.
At every media engagement in Berlin and Budapest, which was practically an education process, the Sabah Tourism Minister would emphasise that Sabah is in Borneo, and that Sabah was previously known as North Borneo (under British rule).
“Personally, I enlightened those who told me that they had never heard of Sabah before (coming to) ITB Berlin 2024. Hopefully, the ‘Never heard of Sabah’ and ‘Not been to this part of the world’ syndrome will soon be a thing of the past,” Liew remarked, while calling on the German and Hungarian media to promote Sabah through their articles in newspapers, feature stories in travel magazines, and other related publications.
While rekindling ties with old customers, CEO & Founder of Sabah-based Rustic Borneo Travel Peter Stenberg succeeded in closing several deals with a Swiss travel agency. A group of 25 Swiss travellers will visit Sabah this year, according to him.
“Another two groups (totalling 50) also from Switzerland will come next year, They want to see historic Sandakan (the gateway to Sabah’s iconic wildlife), Kinabalu Park (UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the pristine beaches of Kota Kinabalu, among other natural attractions,” he said, adding they like our tourism products.