Kota Kinabalu: Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman stressed that the tourism and hospitality industry in Sabah has accelerated growth with all potentials being developed into one of the largest sources of foreign exchange and employment opportunities in the State.
"As such, tourism and hospitality must be recognised in that training is essential towards the improvement of standard of services in order to achieve high productivity," he said.
He noted that the number of tourist arrivals in the State over the last two years reflected a 2.7 per cent increase from 1.77 million in 2004 to 1.82 million in 2005. Musa, who is also Finance Minister, expressed optimism that such encouraging record might help Sabah achieve the target 2.7 million visitors by 2007.
In recognition of this potential, the State Government had, since as early as 1990, formulated and put into places policies and the requisite institutional infrastructure to realise the full potential of the industry.
Musa said this while addressing the 9th convocation ceremony of the Asian Tourism Institute (ATI), at Le Meridien Hotel, near here Thursday.
Present were Minister of Research Development and Information Technology Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai, his deputy Melanie Chia, and Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Bobby Suan.
In this respect, the Government spends more than RM10 million annually in promoting Sabah as premier tourist destination through events such as trade shows, he said.
He pointed out that all effort in terms of manpower and funding would go to waste "if our world-class destination is not accompanied by world-class services".
A better trained and skilled workforce would undoubtedly increase productivity and efficiency, thereby improve the overall quality of products and services, he said.
He commended training institutions, such as ATI, for their contributions towards the advancement of the hospitality and tourism industry in Sabah.
More than 500 students received their certificates, ranging from Diploma in Food and Beverage Module, Diploma in Business and Hospitality studies, catering, to Higher National Diploma in Travel and Tourism management.
Source: Daily Express
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