MAKING SABAH BETTER KNOWN

BROWSING..... Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Masidi Manjun browsing through the Enchanting Borneo Book with author David Bowden (right) and Chief Executive Officer of Sutera Harbour Resort Frank Liepmenn (left).

By : ELAINE MAH

SPEAKING at the Book Launch of 'Enchanting Borneo Special Edition' at the Pacific Sutera Hotel today, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Masidi Manjun said that many people have heard of Borneo but few have heard of Sabah, and hopefully, the book would help to make Sabah better known.

He told the gathering, however, that more and more people now know Sabah and consider it a good place to come for their holiday. He cited as a case in point the 45 percent rise in the number of European visitors to Sabah over the last ten months.

He considers these numbers as significant as tourism is one of Sabah’s main income earners and the steady increase of tourist arrivals is indicative of the growth of state's tourism industry.

In 2009, 2.24 million visitors arrived in Sabah. This increased to 2.5 million in 2010 and 2.84 million in 2011. Despite the global economic gloom the number of visitors continued to climb. Sabah received 1.87 million tourist arrivals during the first eight months of this year, with revenue valued at RM3.39 billion.

Masidi was particularly upbeat about Sabah's ability to attract high-end tourists. He said arrivals from Germany have gone up about 71 percent in the last ten months.

The number of Chinese travellers has likewise risen, numbering some 132, 377 visitors from January to August 2012, as compared to 133, 736 people in 2011.

“Before the year ends, I believe we should be able to get 150,000 Chinese travellers to Sabah,” Masidi said.

Commenting on the launch of the Enchanting Borneo book, Masidi said the book would further spark interest in Sabah.

Enchanting Borneo is part of a travel photo book series by Australian author David Bowden. The 80-page book includes basic information as well as interesting snippets about Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan.

Bowden first came to Sabah as a consultant for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia, and has lived in Sabah in the past 20 years.

In his speech at the book launch, Bowden praised the tourism industry in Sabah.

“Borneo is still one of the world’s best tourism secrets that have not been overrun by mass tourism. All that is required is wise management and guidance, and I think this is well and truly in place in Sabah,” he said. (Insight Sabah)