Sabah folk are confident that the state’s many attractions and natural beauty will pull in travellers again.
If there is one thing that Sabahans can always count on for a job and money, it is the tourism sector.
Tourism is Sabah’s third largest and one of the state’s most important income-generating sectors.
Whatever happens, the industry will always pick itself up after a slowdown.
This Year of the Horse was welcomed with hope and a feeling of new beginnings, with the Government aiming for a change in the economy, for fewer cross border crimes and a boost in major sectors in Sabah and the country.
However, many, especially businesses in the east coast, had their hopes crushed when kidnappings were reported.
Just this year alone, less than six months after Taiwanese tourist Li Min Hsu, 57, was shot dead while his partner Chang An Wei, 58, was taken from the Pom Pom Island resort in Semporna to the Philippines on Nov 15 last year, Sabah was again shocked with at least two more kidnappings in the district.
In the first incident, Filipina resort worker Marcy Darawan, 40, and Chinese tourist Gao Huayun, 29, were taken from the Singamata Reef Resort in Semporna on April 2.
Both of them were freed from their Abu Sayyaf kidnappers on May 30.
In the second abduction, fish farm manager Yang Zai Lin, 34, was taken from the Wonderful Terrace Fish Farm in Lahad Datu waters on May 6.
Yang has not been rescued yet.
The once busy districts like Semporna and Lahad Datu have turned more quiet now.
Hotels that used to be fully booked almost year round now have extra rooms to spare when visitors come knocking on their doors.
Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Sabah tourism will bounce back
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