Tourism
Aussie travel firm fires up Sabah
Hope of more tourists for Borneo state
By Nurhafizah Yusof
Pictures by Oliver Majaham
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Malaysia Airlines flies three times a week from Kota Kinabalu to Perth because there are about 20,000 Sabahans there; 4,000 are university students. And the capital of Western Australia is the fifth most popular destination for Malaysian tourists, according to the Association of Malaysians in Western Australia. But oddly few Australians have heard of Sabah. So tourism officials of the Borneo island state are excited at the prospect of having more Aussie tourists. Flight Centre, Australia’s largest travel agency, recently sent 95 of its managers and agents to Kota Kinabalu on a familiarization tour.
“Western Australians are mainly attracted to Bali,” said Rebecca Rae, 28, a Flight Centre team manager. “Many of them have visited it five times. So, we are going to get them to come to Sabah.”
Perth, with about 1.7m people, is Australia’s fourth most populous city. Getting a tenth of Western Australians to visit Sabah would certainly boost Sabah’s tourist figures. The state earns about 4 billion ringgit ($1.3 billion) from 2.3m tourists making it the second biggest revenue earner after palm oil.
“Sabah is very similar to Bali in many ways and so it will attract Western Australians,” Rae said. “Yet it is different and very accessible with a direct flight from Perth to Kota Kinabalu.”
Masidi Manjun, the minister of tourism, culture and environment, said he got the impression that Western Australians love Sabah at a moonlit garden party at the Pacific Sutera Hotel which the Sabah Tourism Board threw for them.
“We have what they like,” he said. “We have excellent outdoor tourism products, nature and wildlife, which will attract them.”
Malaysia is Western Australia’s third biggest market for students. Trade between Sabah and Western Australia is about 6 billion ringgit.
Flight Centre which employs 8,000 operates in 11 countries. It made 441m ringgit on revenue of 5.7 billion ringgit last year. – Insight Sabah
Posted on 23-05-2011 09:00 pm
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Tourism, Masidi Manjun, Perth, Western Australia, Borneo, Sabah, Kota Kinabalu
We are making Sabah not just a gateway for trade, investment and tourism but a modern, vibrant, prosperous and harmonious place to live.
Prime Minister Najib Razak speaking at the open day of the Sabah Development Corridor in Kota Kinabalu on February 16.