Date: 17 November, 2012
Another book to promote Sabah.
Kota Kinabalu: Books can be a starting point for a
particular place because it creates a first impression that triggers impact,
according to Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
"Books are the first thing that people pick up and it's a starting point
of one's interest in a particular place which is very important because first
impressions create a lasting impression," he said.
Masidi said this during the launching of a book by
Malaysian-based writer David Bowden titled 'Enchanting Borneo's special edition
for Sutera Harbour Resort' held at the Pacific Sutera Harbour, here, Friday.
"For us in the tourism industry, this is another
chapter in our effort to promote Sabah and obviously when this book is sold
overseas that will be the first impression of Sabah or even Borneo," he
said. "Hopefully, with this book, more people especially foreigners will
want to find where Sabah is because Sabah is a small State and some foreigners
may have heard of Borneo but never heard of Sabah," he added.
"As a Sabahan, I am very proud Bowden has taken
interest to sell Sabah to the rest of the world," said Masidi on the
80-page book that portrays a kaleidoscope of colours reflecting the diversity
of Borneo's lifestyle. "More importantly, I think all of us in Sabah are
privileged to be living in what I term as living within the garden of God, and
the garden of God is of course obviously Sabah," he added.
Masidi also thanked John Beaufoy of John Beaufoy Publishing
for publishing the travel photo book authored by Bowden, which he described as
courageous because it could trigger curiosity among those who do not know
Sabah. Also present were Sutera Harbour Resort President Datuk Edward Ong and
his Chief Executive Officer Frank Liepmann.
On another development, he said the arrival of Europeans in
Sabah increased over the last 11 months but there has been a bit of difficulty
in the domestic tourism because airlines are offering them cheaper travel out
of the country. "In fact, there are offers which are way cheaper than
going from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu, so most have chosen to go overseas.
But the other reason is because most of the seats from Kuala
Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu have been taken over by foreigners who prefer to come
over to Sabah for their holidays," he said. He cited the arrival of German
travellers, which has gone up by 71 per cent over the last 10 months, with
overall European arrivals going up by 41 per cent.
"This is a good indicator for us in Sabah, travellers
are more choosy and our strategy to get high yield travellers who are willing
to spend, seem to be and appear to be working well but of course you can never
beat the Chinese arrivals," he said. "By July the number of Chinese
who have arrived in Sabah is somewhat equal to those who arrived during the
entire 2011, thus, I believe that before the year is out we should be able to
get about 150,000 Chinese travellers in Sabah," he added.
On another note, he said Malaysia Airlines (MAS) would be
re-launching the Kota Kinabalu-Perth sector next month. "It is only once a
week but I think the fact that they have re-launched the flight is something to
celebrate," he said, adding MAS might also re-launch the Tokyo-Kota
Kinabalu route soon. I think there is some negotiation on the time of the
flights but it's going to be re-launched again soon and of course, so is the
new route like Kota Kinabalu-Shanghai and AirAsia's daily flight from Guangzhou
to Kota Kinabalu beginning the end of December," he added.
"All this would mean that the industry is going to do
well and obviously there are going to be challenges but if there are no
challenges there is no reason for us to do better," he said.
Copyright @ 2012 Sabah Publishing House Sdn. Bhd
