Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) foresees that the state is expected to experience a growth of 20-30 per cent tourist arrivals this year compared to 2023.
Satta Chairman Dato’ Seri Winston Liaw attributed the surge to the tourist visa-free granted to Chinese nationals by the Federal Government to speed up the recovery process of the tourism sector.
Sabah welcomed 45,801 tourists from China from Jan to Sept 2023 compared to only 4,162 arrivals in 2022.
To date, Sabah is connected to eight major Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Macau and Hong Kong with 63 weekly flights and flights’ seating capacity of 11,360.