Ministry to commercialize Tenom tourism — Masidi
TENOM: Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Masidi Manjun said that his ministry would further develop and commercialize the tourism industry here.
He said the interior has a lot of potential and tourism products that the residents had not exploited.
“Last year 95 per cent of the income of local communities was from the tourism industry,” he said when opening the Flower Festival at the Sabah Agriculture Park in Lagud Seberang here yesterday.
Masidi said this showed that the tourism industry was an important source of income for local communities that could help improve the economy of the people.
He said his ministry wanted locals to create more attractive tourism packages in their respective areas.
“Create products and explore potential products to be highlighted in your respective areas.”
In addition to the Sabah Agriculture Park which has over 2,000 species of plants, he said the Sabah Murut Cultural Centre, Tenom food products such as coffee and the uniqueness of the Kadazan Dusun Murut (KDM) cultures should be promoted.
“My ministry is also ready to discuss with the local authorities to find the latest method to attract tourists,” he said, adding that this included maintaining historical buildings such as the old railway station in Melalap, increase the number of tourist facilities such as hotels, homestays and restaurants as well as more efforts to introduce a variety of local food products and handicrafts of the local community here
According to him, more than three million foreign tourists to Sabah last year had generated income of up to RM6.4 billion to the state.
“In the first six months of this year alone, foreign tourist arrivals have registered a positive growth at 48.2 percent from China, South Korea (35.2 percent), Taiwan (36.8 percent) and Brunei (6.2 per cent) whose total arrivals registered a double digit growth of 12.7 per cent compared with in the same period last year.
“Although the tourism sector was affected by security issues in Sabah few years ago, tourists still preferred as their destination,” he said.
At the event, Masidi announced a RM60,000 allocation from the ministry for the Sabah Agriculture Park to enhance the promotion of its rich variety of plants.
He also praised the local leaders in this area for building a new bridge in Melalap to facilitate transportation for visitors and tourists to the park.
Also present were Rural Development Minister Datuk Radin Malleh, Tenom MP Datuk Raime Unggi Senator Datuk Dr Lucas Umbul, director of the Sabah Agriculture Department Idrus Shafie, among others.