Exciting years for Sabah tourism

Kota Kinabalu: Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat hopes the RM1 billion KKIA expansion project can be completed within the next two to three years.

He said the Kota Kinabalu International Airport has been the second busiest airport in the country the past several years, after Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). The two other airports in the State also receiving international and domestic flights were in Sandakan and Tawau.

"We are in for some very exciting years, the next three to five or 10 years, because the Federal Government has approved the drastic expansion project for KKIA to the tune of RM1 billion," he told the Sabah Hotelier's Nite at the Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort (STAR), Thursday.

The dinner was held in conjunction with the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) national conference hosted by its Sabah Chapter.

Chong said KKIA is now serving some 456 flights per week and some 70 from this were direct international flights, excluding Kuala Lumpur.

"We have flights coming directly from Tokyo and Osaka in Japan, besides Korea, Hong Kong which is going to be daily after next month, from Manila and Cebu in Philippines, Taiwan and now, from Bangkok," he said.

"This is something which is going to be exciting for all of us. I believe the travel fraternity will continue to be like this."

Chong said the State tourism industry did extremely well last year with 1.77 million tourists arriving via the international airport here, Sandakan and Tawau.

Some 792,000 comprised international tourists and over another 963,000 were domestic tourists from the peninsula and Sarawak. He said the number may be more if the calculation was made through the hotel counts.

"The said figure was based on outright arrivals through the international airports in Sabah. If we do it through the hotel counts, it will be in many millions.," he told those attending Also present were MAH Vice-President, Ivo Raeto Nekvapil, its Sabah Chapter's Chairman, Karel Schrijvers and other officials from the tourism-related government and private sector.

Source: Daily Express