KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is set to contribute at least 10 per cent to the nation’s targeted RM168 billion tourism receipts in 2020.
Expressing confidence in meeting the target, Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Tengku Zainal Adlin said the state is currently drafting its master plan to ensure that they will be able to lure more tourists to make the state as their holiday destination.
“We are drafting the Sabah Tourism Master Plan and any new ideas on how we can attract more people to come here will be based on our master plan. We are targeting to contribute at least 10 per cent or RM16.8 billion from the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan’s (MTTP) of 36 million international tourists arrivals and revenue amounting to RM168 million by 2020,” he said.
Speaking to reporters after moderating the Retreat Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan 2020:36:168 Programme, themed “Let us move forward together towards excellence”, here, yesterday, Zainal explained that the Sabah tourism industry has been very encouraging the last few years.
“For instance, in within 10 years, we saw the number of tourists increase by five-fold. In 1998, statistics showed some 400,000 tourist arrivals and the number rose to two million in 2008.
“Last year, we achieved 11.8 per cent tourism growth compared to the previous year. The last two years have not been that encouraging due to the economic downturn,” he said.
The programme is a collaboration between the Tourism Ministry office and its counterpart in Sabah.
“We discussed on a few things. Among the objectives are to estimate the contribution from Sabah and Labuan towards national tourist arrivals and revenue target, to explain the MTTP 2020:36:168 as well as to share our tourism industry development plan, share strategies and ensure it is realised.
“During the event, we also discussed on ways to identify human capital and ensure that the facilities and infrastructures are in place. We will also continue to foster closer ties with the government agencies, non-governmental organisations and other tourism players to meet our target,” he said.