Kota Kinabalu : Sabah's tourist attractions must be fully tapped with more aggressive promotional efforts and attractive packages as the tourism sector is a prime catalyst for improving the people's lot and the state's economy.
Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk Dr James Dawos Mamit said there should also be more variety of tourism products to keep drawing tourists to Malaysia, especially Sabah.
"The federal government, meanwhile, will continue to give its support to the tourism sector in Sabah, which has many natural attractions like Mount Kinabalu, Southeast Asia's highest mountain," he said at the opening of the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia Fair for the East Malaysia Region 2010 at the 1Borneo Hypermall, here, yesterday.
James said based on statistics from Tourism Malaysia, 5,362,270 tourists stayed in hotels throughout Sabah last year including 2,833,630 domestic tourists, while from last year until February this year, 1,501 domestic tourists chose the homestay while in Sabah.
"This clearly shows that the contribution of domestic tourists to the sector cannot be taken lightly."
Dawos was also happy to note that Sabah was placed as one of the top 10 tourist destinations in the region last year and took second spot in the list of best international tourist destinations by the Global Traveler Tested Awards.
On the Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia Fair, he said it was aimed at promoting the various domestic tourism products in an integrated manner and to enable the public to directly purchase the tourism packages offered.
Dawos said last year saw 16,861 domestic tourism packages worth RM4.7 million sold to visitors to the fair. -- Bernama
From The Borneo Post
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