Christina Liew
KOTA KINABALU: Statistics from the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) speak volumes of the phenomenal success achieved by the State Government through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment in promoting Sabah as a premier tourist destination to the outside world.
Caretaker Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Christina Liew said last year (Jan-Dec 2019), Sabah recorded some 4,195,903 tourist arrivals with estimated tourism receipts of RM9.01 billion, registering a growth by 8.1 per cent compared with RM8.34 billion the previous year (Jan-Dec 2018).
“Of the figure (4,195,903), a total of 1,469,475 were international tourists, while the rest (2,726,428) were domestic tourists. The 4.195 million tourist arrivals exceeded the target set for 2019 (that is, 4.0 million tourist arrivals).
“This significant tourism performance is attributed to continued growth from major source markets such as domestic markets and South Korea, and improved demand from Negara Brunei and Singapore.
“In fact, the 4.195 million arrivals in 2019 also exceeded the target set for the current year (that is, 4.18 million),” she said in a statement yesterday.
As far as Sabah is concerned, Christina, who is also the incumbent Api-Api Assemblywoman, said the destination’s Top 10 International Arrivals for the Jan-Dec 2019 period were China, South Korea, Negara Brunei, Taiwan, Singapore, UK and Ireland, Japan, the Philippines, Australia and USA.
In 2019, she led delegations to at least six countries to promote Sabah as a preferred tourist destination in a drive to woo more tourists. These were Germany, China, Japan, Singapore, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
“Our relentless efforts have paid dividends. For example, tourist arrivals from Brunei increased by 39.7 per cent from 56,259 (Jan-Dec 2018) to
78,605 (Jan-Dec 2019). Similarly, Singapore’s arrivals registered a growth by 37.2 per cent from 25,102 to 34,435 while Japanese tourists soared by 26.2 per cent from 19,357 to 24,435,” she said.
Christina was commenting on businessman Ng Chun Sua’s statement that he had received many complaints from city dwellers, which included the lack of public facilities and how the government should promote Kota Kinabalu as a tourist destination.
“Does he (Ng) know what he is talking about? While we may appreciate constructive ideas, we hope he is not trying to teach a duck how to swim. From day one, the government has been aggressively promoting Kota Kinabalu as an ideal tourist destination. Perhaps some people are too busy to read the newspapers or online news.
“As it is, Kota Kinabalu is the gateway to Sabah and efforts have been geared towards enhancing KK City Tourism in tandem with the global trend of city tourism. In 2018, we implemented the KK City
Beautification Programme in collaboration with Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK), and it is still ongoing. The government is also doing its best to improve public facilities,” she pointed out.
According to Christina, the City Park Landscape Development project, among other plans, was held up by the Movement Control Order due to the Covid-19 pandemic.