Tourism In Sabah

1.0 Tourism Industry in Sabah

The tourism industry, especially in Sabah, has been booming despite the natural disaster tsunami and bird flu. Tourists have been flocking to Sabah due to its unique eco-related places that had generated a lot of interests among foreign visitors. Kota klias is one of the many interesting sites in Sabah and in recent years the area has been gaining popularity among foreign tourists due to the presence of the unique and proboscis monkey.

2.0 THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

The world tourism industry reached an all-time record of 760 million international tourist arrivals

in 2004. The figure represented an increase of 10 percent in comparison with the previous year, the best results in two decades, according to a report released by World Tourism Organisation. The Organisation said year 2005 was even better, with Asia benefiting not seen before.

2.1 Malaysia

Tourist Arrivals and Receipts to Malaysia:

Year Arrivals Tourism Receipts (RM)

2000 10.22 million 17,335.4 million

2001 12.78 million 24,221.5 million

2002 13.29 million 25,781.1 million

2003 10.58 million 21,291.1 million

2004 15.70 million 29.651.4 million

2005 (10 months) 13.58 million Not Available

Malaysia recorded a total of 13,581,502 tourist arrivals from January to October 2005 compared to 13,071,098 for the same period in 2004, indicating an increase of 3.9%. For the month of October 2005, there were 1,367,735 tourist arrivals compared to 1,359,658 for the same month in 2004, showing a slight growth of 0.6%.

Malaysia has been recording a steady average of some 1.3 million foreign visitors per month for the first ten months

The top ten tourist generating markets until October 2005 were Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Japan, China, Australia, United Kingdom, India and Taiwan.

The country is expected to receive even higher tourist arrivals in 2007, which coincide with the Visit Malaysia Year.

3.0 Sabah

Tourists Arrivals to Sabah:

Year Malaysian Internationals Total

2000 365,537 408,938 774,475

2001 512,514 406,009 918,523

2002 579,092 528,264 1,107,356

2003 681,742 569,712 1,251,454

2004 792,308 980,963 1,773,271

2005(preliminary) 1,067,677 761,094 1,828,771

As for Sabah, 2005 was unquestionably a better year than 2004. Sabah welcomed a record high of more than 1.8 million arrivals in 2005, posting a 3 percent increase over 2004 and 46 percent increase over 2003. This translates into a tourism receipt of over RM 2 billion for Sabah.

Although the country has faced extraordinary challenges due to circumstances beyond control such as the tsunami natural disaster and spread of bird flu, the number of tourist arrivals to the State had however increased.

According to the State’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment recently, the number of tourist arrivals had increased by 2.7 percent, from 1.773 million in 2004 to 1.821 million in 2005. In this respect, the Ministry said the target of 2.7 million arrivals in 2007 is not impossible due to further support from the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 campaign.

The state may see tourist arrivals to further increase with a possible target of 4 million arrivals by 2010. This will greatly benefit tourism industry, where the number of visitors will continue to increase.

The State of Sabah has been receiving increasing number of tourist arrivals due primarily to its wide varieties of tourism attractions which broadly included as exciting site for adventures, diverse cultures, diving haven, white sandy island beaches, tasty local delicacies, heritage sites and most importantly, availability of unique wildlife and nature.

These diverse tourist attractions have made Sabah an increasingly popular destination for tourists to visit Sabah. There are indications that the existing hotel rooms are grossly inadequate to meet the strong demand as a result from tourists’ arrivals.

4.0 KOTA KLIAS

Kota Klias is located about 150 km from Kota Kinabalu, a Mangrove Forest Reserve rich with the elusive Proboscis monkey, Silver Leaf monkey and myriad species of birds that inhabit this unique riverine environment.

4.1 Fireflies

On a moonless night, the area will be swarm by the flickering lights of fireflies against the night sky. Congregation of fireflies can be seen almost all along the bank of the Klias River. Some trees may have more than a thousand individuals of adult fireflies. Apart from Kota Klias, the Selangor river (Peninsular Malaysia) is one of the more renown areas for observing the magical display of fireflies.

4.2