Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s unique culture and rural destination experience has left a lasting impression on Malaysian Inbound Chinese Association (Mica) members - enhancing the state’s potential as a preferred holiday destination.
The members toured several popular attractions in order to become more familiar with Sabah’s tourism products, including a community-based tourism spot in the Kundasang highland, experiencing firsthand natural fish spas and the ‘tagal’ system.
They shared their fish spa experience on social media, which piqued the interest of Malaysians as well as their Chinese followers.
Assistant Tourism, Culture, and Environment Minister, Datuk Joniston Bangkuai, who is also Sabah Tourism Board (STB) Chairman, said Sabah is constantly highlighting its rural destinations for their unique tourism offerings that cannot be found anywhere else.
“The ‘tagal’ system, for example, is an interesting concept combining culture and the need to protect the environment. Many rural communities in Sabah initiated tagal system in their respective village, which has become quite a popular attraction among visitors,” he said at the Mica B2B Networking event here Monday.
Joniston believes that Sabah is indeed very strong on the concept of community-based tourism and that the jewel of tourism lies in its outskirts, with its rich flora and fauna, culture, and friendly people.
“It’s wonderful to know Mica is helping to promote Sabah to our fellow Malaysians in the Peninsula as they are now our potential visitors, as well as to the China market,” he said.
Present were STB Chief Executive Officer, Noredah Othman; Mica President, Datuk Dr Angie Ng; Mica Sabah Chapter President, Eddie Chan; Malaysian China Business Council Chairman of Tourism and Culture, Datuk Philip Yong; and Tourism Malaysia Deputy Senior Director, Amirul Rizal.
Mica has selected Sabah to be its first destination in 2022 in their FOLIDAY campaign for the domestic market. Its focus is “Family, Friends, Fun, and Freebie” with the aim of promoting safe travel.
Commending Mica’s efforts, Bangkuai said there was a need for the tourism industry to come up with innovative ideas and services such as rebranding tourist attractions to appeal to locals as well as repricing hotel rooms.
”To survive and thrive during the downturn, the industry needs to be creative and innovative to discover new value propositions. Until borders are completely open, domestic tourism will be the primary driver of the travel industry,” he said.
He emphasised that the Sabah Tourism Board has implemented various measures, including travel incentives and promotional campaigns, to boost and entice domestic tourism.
Meanwhile, Dr Ng said the concept of community-based tourism was relatively new to them and that Mica intends to include it in their Sabah destination packages.
“We are very excited to have learnt about this concept during our visit here. The (rural) community is very educated about the environment and we feel Sabah is good for the people in the peninsular to explore this year,” she said.
She said Mica is utilising the many
digital platforms available to promote Sabah and other states both domestically and internationally, with the goal of establishing a travelling exchange programme.
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