Potential generation of tourism dollars for Sarawak through sports events

KUCHING: Sports tourism could serve as a viable platform to draw in more tourism dollars for the state.

According to Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) commission member Dato Wee Hong Seng, the ongoing synergy between the government, corporate sector and sports bodies is seen as a catalyst for such development.

“I believe that our Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg had this foresight when he combined the portfolios of Youth and Sports with Tourism, Arts and Culture under one ministry, with Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah being the minister in-charge.

“As far as SBBA is concerned, it is our hope that through our events, we would be able to contribute in our own way to the development of sports tourism in Sarawak,” he spoke at the opening of the fourth annual Mr Boulevard/Mr BBS bodybuilding championships, staged at the Atrium of Boulevard Shopping Mall here on Saturday.

Wee, who is also Sarawak Bodybuilding Association (SBBA) president, pointed out that the state government knew about this very potential, as seen during last year’s Malaysia Games where promotions were intensified and sports facilities across the state underwent upgrading.

“Still, the national event was not the sole trigger of sports tourism in Sarawak; many of the facilities had been set up long before that to ensure that this area of tourism would continue to thrive and prosper,” he said.

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Khaye_leidoscope: Our Free Trip to Kota Kinabalu and Getting 15 Passport Stamps in our Borneo Trip

Free and travel sounds good together, right? Who wouldn’t want that? Of course, we do! Luckily, we were able to get our first free trip to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia via Air Asia. Here’s how it happened.

Originally, we booked a roundtrip ticket to Miri, Malaysia thru Air Asia Airlines. We learned about their promo when we attended a travel fair.

I cannot remember the exact details such as the promo fare cost, other expenses and name of our hotels because this trip took place three years ago.

Two weeks before our flight, the airline informed us that it has been cancelled due to insufficient number of passengers. They offered us a refund, but we were determined to push through with our trip.

We called the airline to emphasize that we do not want a refund, and they must do something about it. Kudos to their team because they were efficient enough to come up with a solution.

They offered us a connecting flight via Kota Kinabalu for FREE. Without second thoughts, we grabbed their offer.

Getting 15 Passport Stamps in our Borneo Trip

Aside from free trips, we are thrilled every time we get stamps on our passports. If you travel often, you’ll realize how precious your passport is. A little book that can bring you to places.

It has been our goal to fill ours with stamps of different countries around the world. Those stamps are not just blots of ink on our passports, but they also signify the memories of our travels.

This is how our Borneo trip went. The reason why we booked a ticket to Miri was because we wanted to go to Brunei to see the golden mosques.

However, it’s quite expensive to book a direct flight to Brunei, so we opted for a cross country travel. Miri was our cheapest option. There’s a direct bus route from Miri to Brunei.

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Bario – a Highlands experience

A Singaporean tourist stepped on the scale to have his body weight verified by the counter officer as he checked in for a Twin Otter flight, operated by Sarawak’s Rural Air Service, to the Bario Highlands.

His fellow Singaporeans and Kuala Lumpur friends travelling with him, were amused they had to weigh in for their first-ever flight aboard the 19-seater light aircraft to the highlands for the Bario Food and Cultural Festival 2017 (Pesta Nukenen) from July 27-29.

Apparently, they did not expect this, at least not at Miri Airport which is classified as an international airport. But it was all taken in good spirits and their trip to the Bario Highlands turned out to be an enjoyable and memorable one.

On an ordinary day, Bario could have over 50 visitors flying in on the three daily flights. But for the Pesta Nukenen, it is quite usual to have a few more chartered flights besides the normal three.

The group from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, who booked their fight last September, were only told the opening ceremony of the Bario Food and Cultural Festival would always be on the last Thursday of July – in this instance, the same day of their arrival in Bario. So, they could hope there would be sufficient culinary delights to sample on the second and third days.

Accompanying the group was a much-travelled Canadian from Toronto. She told thesundaypost she had been googling for more information on the festival since knowing about it last year. She was excited about visiting the highlands and experiencing life in the Land of a Thousand Handshakes.

The Twin Otter made a smooth landing and one of the travellers was even eager to get her bags by herself from the belly of the small plane but the luggage man at the spot saved her the trouble.

Bario is a STOLport— an airport designed with STOL (short take-off and landing) operations in mind, usually for aircraft of a specific weight and size class.

According to a local, if Bario airport were to have a longer runway, it would have to move somewhere else because there is a river at the end of the runway.

“We may have to wait many years before bigger planes can land here,” he lamented.

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Sabah received record tourist arrivals in 2016

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s tourism industry had its best year ever in 2016, achieving record tourist arrivals and tourism receipts despite headwinds, said Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.

He said Sabah received an all-time high of 3.43 million tourist arrivals and estimated RM7.25 billion for the state economy.

“International visitors alone saw a 15.4 per cent increase, with China visitors as the largest contributor, recording a 51.8 per cent increase compared to the year before. Australia despite having only one direct flight a week from Perth, saw an increase of 8.7 per cent.

“Over the period from July to September this year, I was informed that we are expecting to receive four charter flights flying from Incheon, Korea and one charter flight from Tokyo, Japan.

“This will contribute an additional 25,637 seats to the current numbers. Apart from charter flights, for the same period, China Southern Airlines is adding their frequency from two times to three times a week. Malindo Air is also adding their frequency from four flights a week to daily flights flying from Taiwan for the winter schedule,” he said.

Masidi said this in his speech during the launching of Sabah Rural Tourism Roadshow at Imago Shopping Mall yesterday, adding that Sabah’s previous best was in 2013, with over 3.38 million arrivals.

“Certainly our best products are the attractions on coastal areas as well as the preserved landscapes located in the interior. I do hope that this roadsow will give us all more ideas on the many untapped new attractions that are available around Sabah.

“We should consider this as an opening of new fresh markets for domestic and foreign tourists,” he added.

In tandem with the positive growth in Sabah’s tourism industry, where tourists are searching for new tourism products, Masidi said Sabah Tourism took the initiative to create an event where rural tourism products owners could engage with the tourism industry players as well as the public at large to showcase the availability of rural tourism products.

“Since 2014,  Sabah Tourism Board has put tremendous effort on the rural tourism initiative in each district in Sabah.

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Pacific Paratrooper: Sandakan POW Camp and Australian Soldiers

It remains the single-worst atrocity against Australians at war. Yet many Australians have probably never heard of Sandakan.

So few men returned from the Japanese prisoner of war camp on the island of Borneo after World War II it has become a neglected chapter in Australia’s wartime history.

In fact 2,000 Australians spent time as POWs at Sandakan. And of the nearly 1,800 still captive there at the end of the war, only six men survived.

All of which makes Sydney man Billy Young rare indeed. He spent three years as a POW under the Japanese.

He is the only surviving rank and file Australian soldier who spent time at Sandakan.  And he is the only POW still alive who was imprisoned at Outram Road Jail in Singapore.

Now aged 90, he has written a book about his inspiring story. “Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW”, co-written with historian Lynette Silver.

Mr Young would never have gone to war if his mother had not abandoned him as a baby.  Adora Shaw walked out on Billy and his father William in Hobart in about 1927 and returned to Sydney with another son Kevin, from an earlier relationship.

Billy never saw her again. One of his earliest memories is of his father taking him to Sydney to search for her, and later showing him her grave.  She had apparently died of tuberculosis.

A decade later his father also died. He had joined the Australian Communist Party and gone to Spain to fight in the civil war, but was caught and shot by forces loyal to dictator General Franco.

“When he was gone, I was like a wild animal,” Mr Young says from his home near Hurstville.  “I was a rebel. I wanted my dad.  He was the only person of authority I could listen to.”

At 15, a fellow student told him he wanted to enlist in the army. It was 1941. Australian troops were fighting overseas. Billy decided to join him. 

“The fella said to us ‘what mob do you want to join?’ And we said the one that goes overseas. He said ‘that’s the AIF’, and I said ‘that’s us’. He said ‘how old are you?’ And we said ‘how old have you gotta be?’ He said 19. We said ‘well, we’re 19’.”

With no parents to give consent, the boys took the enlistment forms and signed each other’s paper. At 15 they were soldiers.

Hoping for a boys’ own adventure, they joined the 100,000 allied troops in Singapore. Mr Young says initially there was no fear of the Japanese. 

“Intelligence officers used to say to us: ‘Those Japanese — they’re nothing. They’re blind. They all wear glasses, they’re short-sighted’,” he says.

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