Friday, June 23, 2006

Getting more Sabahans to visit rest of Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu: Tourism Malaysia aims to encourage more domestic travel and vacationing among the people in Sabah through its three-day Cuti-Cuti Malaysia Travel Fair at the Centre Point here from today.

Its Sabah Director, Iskandar Mirza Mohd Yusof, said 24 organisations including travel agencies, operators of tourist attraction and hotels are taking part in this year's fair to offer special and exclusive packages. It is open from 10.30am to 9.30pm.

"The fair is especially aimed at encouraging people in Sabah to systematically make or plan a vacation domestically. The special packages offered are suitable for all walks of life, either for a vacation with family members or friends," he said.

He was speaking at a joint press conferences with Tourism Malaysia Kelantan in conjunction with the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia Travel Fair and the Kelantan Food & Cultural Promotion at Promenade Hotel, Thursday.

Also present were Tourism Malaysia Kelantan Director, Hajah Lijah Othman, Tourism Malaysia Deputy Director of Domestic Promotion Division, Zarina Dolah Judin, and management representatives from Promenade Hotel and Centre Point.

The fair, which is part of a nationwide roadshow, also involves local artistes Abu Bakar Ellah and Pija, the winner of television reality show Mentor, as well as Azizi of Akademi Fantasia (AF) 1 and a dikir barat and wayang kulit group from Kelantan which would be performing at the event's venue throughout the three-day period.

The fair held here in May last year managed to sell 185 special travel packages worth RM72,348.

Meanwhile, Iskandar Mirza said a 25-member delegation from Kelantan is in town to promote the State among the people in Sabah.

Iskandar Mirza said besides introducing the uniqueness of traditional food and culture of the Kelantanese, it also hopes to attract more people in Sabah to visit the state.

Besides two chefs from Hotel Perdana who will display their skills in preparing various Kelantan traditional cuisine like Nasi Kerabu, Nasi Dagang, Laksam, Kuih Jala Emas and others, the delegation also includes 12 Kelantan wayang kulit and dikir barat mambers, two gasing (top) demonstrators and one wau (traditional kite) demonstrator, among others.

As to why they picked Sabah as a venue for the programme, Lijah said generally there are many visitors from the peninsula coming to Sabah for either business or vacation.

"We find there is little movement from Sabah to Kelantan. This is although there are people from Sabah coming for business purposes like to buy kain songket or batik in Kelantan," she said.

"Probably Kelantan is still less known among the people in Sabah, so we hope to attract more people here to go to the peninsula and up to Kelantan," she added.

"Kelantan received about 600,000 domestic and 74,000 foreign visitors in 2005 which is far below than the 2.6 million domestic and 2.1 million foreign visitors received by the hotels and resorts in Sabah the same year," she said.

This was despite an increase of about 10 per cent compared to the 2004 figure, she added.

"Sabah is very advanced in terms of tourism compared to Kelantan, based on its approach and products and can cater to a much bigger number," said delegation leader, Lijah.

Source: Daily Express

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