Saturday, September 05, 2009

Domestic tourism in Sabah growing despite challenges

Kota Kinabalu: Domestic tourism in Sabah has withstood global economic uncertainties and the Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun, said domestic tourism was still growing despite facing two global challenges.

"Our domestic tourism is still striving and grew at a rate of 5.1 per cent for the first six months this year.

"With the coming school holidays and the fact that Ramadan is going to end in the third week of September, I believe the number of people coming to Sabah especially local travellers, is going to increase," he said.

In addition, Masidi said certain hotels like three-star outfits have reported 80 per cent occupancy with some fully booked until December.

The high occupancy rate in Sabah hotels was a good sign that people travel either in good or bad times as it has become a habit in their lives, he told a press conference after launching the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Fair at 1Borneo Hypermall, Friday.

A total of 38 booths have been taken up by tour operators, travel agents, foreign tourism office, airlines, hotels and other related industry players.

Thirty five per cent of the exhibitors are promoting domestic tourism.

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