KOTA KINABALU: The first international flight to Sabah will arrive on April 16.
The flight from from Singapore will be the first arrival following the reopening of the country’s borders early this month.
Flights by Air Asia followed by Scoot Airlines are expected on April 29, Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin said during a press conference before breaking of fast at Magellan Sutera in conjunction with the launch of Sutera Harbour Resort (SHR)’s Juadah Keluarga Malaysia breaking of fast programme.
Madam Elaine Kwan, Group Director of Sales and marketing, Mr Gilbert Ee, Group Chief Executive Officer, Sutera Harbour Resort, Datuk Jafry Ariffin, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Sabah, Datuk Sr Haji Mohd Yusrie Abdullah, Setiausaha Tetap Kementerian Pelancongan Kebudayaan dan Alam Sekitar, Puan Noredah Othman, chief executive officer, Sabah Tourism Board
As of May 6, Royal Brunei Airlines will resume its operation from Bandar Seri Begawan to Kota Kinabalu, twice weekly , mainly Friday and Sunday, he shared.
He said the load factor for the flights are encouraging as everybody has been waiting eagerly to visit Sabah since the country’s international borders reopened, he said adding that he had been invited to meet and hold discussions with several tourism players in Singapore.
According to him, the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) will be making the arrangement for the visit soon.
Meanwhile, SHR group chief executive officer Gilbert Ee said they want to market Kota Kinabalu as a destination to Singapore.
“Now we can travel quarantine-free from any countries to Singapore without special arrangement. So Sutera Harbour Resort having Singapore owners are contacting its agents in the republic as we are not only marketing Kota Kinabalu City but also the islands and Mount Kinabalu,” he said.
On the preparation to welcome back visitors, STB chief executive officer Noredah Othman said the Sabah government had allocated RM10 million to upgrade all the 500 tourism products in the state.
She said almost 90 per cent of the works has been completed.
As for community-based tourism (CoBT), she said they have already welcomed domestic tourists for a while, and as such are ready to welcome back foreign tourists.
Since CoBT has been emphasised as one of the products to be promoted, she said adding that guidance will be accorded to these target groups to ensure their standards are on par with the Asean community-based level.
“We hope more CoBT will get the Asean community-based standard accreditation by 2050, we have a long way ahead, even though last year we have an operator in Sandakan that won an international award,” she said.
She was however optimistic with this endeavour as The United Nations World Tourism Organisation in Madrid, Spain awarded the inaugural best tourism village award to Kampung Batu Puteh in the Lower Kinabatangan River last year.-Anna Vivienne
