Tourists from China increased

KOTA KINABALU-Sabah continues to be a preferred tourist destination when record tourist arrivals from China increased more than 75 percent in the period from January to April this year.

Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, said, the four-month period, a total of 103.917 tourists from China was recorded compared to only 59.385 people in the same period last year.

"This improvement can be seen every month starting in January this year even in the period, the tragedy of the terrorist group invasion Tanduo Kiram Village, Lahad Datu near here.

"This shows the government's ability to manage the land so as to attract foreign tourist," he said here today.

Masidi added, in this period there was also an increase of 89 per cent of charter flights from China to Sabah, witnessing 87 special charter flights compared to only 46 in the same period.

In the meantime, he said, based on the increasing number of Chinese tourists so dramatically, the state government has been making preparations to provide the best facilities.

Besides, he said, the appointment of Datuk Pang Yuk Ming as Assistant Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister seen as proactive measures to facilitate travel and tourism industry practitioners from China to communicate.

"The existence of political leaders and officers who can speak Chinese in this industry can make Sabah more competitive and efficient in attracting more tourists from China," he said.

Meanwhile, he said, in that period, the number of tourist arrivals from various other countries also continued to show improvement.

He said Singapore's tourist arrivals increased by 12.6 per cent, Indonesia (17.1 percent), Taiwan (12.8 percent), South Korea (39.5 percent), Japan (28.8 percent), Australia (15.9 per cent) and Europe by 5.3 percent.

He added that the influx of local tourists also saw increased from 603.165 to 630.520 people in the same period last year.

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