Kota Kinabalu: Sabah recorded a total of 776,845 tourist/visitor arrivals in the first three months this year.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew said this encouraging figure marked an increase of 32.8pc compared to the same period in 2023 (584,927).
The breakdown is International Tourists/Visitors: 321,184 (+93.2pc); Domestic Tourists/Visitors: 455,661 (+8.8pc); Total: 776,845 (+32.8pc).
“Based on statistics from the Sabah Tourism Board (STB), an estimated tourism receipt of RM1.75 billion (+46.6pc) was generated from January to March 2024, which is RM0.56 billion more compared to the same period last year (January-March 2023: RM l.19 billion),” Liew said in a statement, Saturday.
SPONSORED CONTENT Electrifying windows of opportunity in Sabah - The right policies, collaborations, and strategies can turn emerging opportunities into victories for all parties in Sabah. CHIEF Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor’s 2021 Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya Plan and the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (SEDIA) have laid out a road map to an exciting future for all Sabahans, with a target of increasing Sabah’s income levels and GDP per capita from about RM 23,000 to about RM 40,000 by 2030. Read more On the sources of international arrivals to Sabah from January to March 2024, the Minister revealed that China is the top market source for tourism in Sabah (116,922 tourists/visitors) for now, followed by South Korea (55,936), Brunei (54,266), Singapore (7,833) and the Europe Region (18,196).
According to Liew, the top five countries contributing to an increase of 35.8pc during the first three months of 2024 were the UK & Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France and Russia.
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