Saturday, April 02, 2011

Sabah To Contribute 10 Per Cent Of RM168 Billion Targeted Tourism Receipts

KOTA KINABALU -- Sabah, whose tourism sector is one of the state's prime movers, is confident of contributing 10 per cent to the targeted RM168 billion in tourism receipts by 2020, under the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan (MTTP).

Sabah Tourism Board chairman, Datuk Seri Dr Tengku Zainal Adlin, said Sabah believed it could achieve this as the state's tourism industry had seen tremendous growth over the last 10 years, where a double-digit growth in percentage of tourist arrivals was recorded last year.

"Under the MTTP, Malaysia has targeted 36 million in tourist arrivals and RM168 billion in tourism receipts by 2020.

"For Sabah, our focus won't be just on the number of tourists but also on the receipts, and we believe we can meet our targeted contribution," he told reporters after a retreat involving tourism industry players in Sabah, here, Saturday.

The programme, jointly organised by the Tourism Ministry's Sabah Office and Tourism Malaysia Sabah, brought together about 50 participants from the State Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry, Sabah Tourism Board, Sabah Cultural Board, Sabah Museum Department, Sabah Tourist Guides Association (STGA) and AirAsia, among others, to brief and work out initiatives towards achieving the MTTP goals. Last year, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the MTTP was one of five economic pillars in the Economic Transformation Programme introduced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

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