Saturday, July 13, 2013

New tourism products, aggressive promotion needed for Labuan


LABUAN: Business communities on the island hailed the government’s efforts to lure more flights to the free-duty island in an effort to boost the tourism sector in the long run.

However, they said it was imperative to look at the island’s existing tourist attractions and programmes, as they were not appealing enough to woo visitors.

There was no significant increase in the number of tourist arrivals into the island due to higher prices of goods and less attractive tourism products.

Speaking to Bernama today, Labuan Malay Chamber of Commerce president Datuk Yussof Mohammad said the island should have new international programmes if it were to see more tourist arrivals.

He said there should be more international products like those listed under Langkawi’s annual events.

On Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi’s statement on efforts to increase flight frequencies to boost the island’s tourism sector, he said it was pointless to have frequent flights if there were only less attractive products to be offered.

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