Face-to-Face: YB Datuk Joniston Lumai
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Travel Daily chats with the chairman of Sabah Tourism, YB Datuk Joniston Lumai, about the opportunities and challenges facing the Malaysian state…
Q) What trends are you currently seeing in terms of international and domestic tourism to/within Sabah, and how do you account for these trends?
2014 has been a very challenging year for the tourism industry in Malaysia, and specifically in Sabah as the destination was faced by various crises and incidents. These incidents posed a tricky time for the East Coast of Sabah, where the concentration of natural attractions are based and lucrative activities such as diving and birding. As of May this year, the number of tourist arrivals saw two consecutive months of decline (month- to-month comparison). However, the high performance first quarter lessens the impact of the decline.
Sabah remains positive and will be aggressive in the final quarter of the year. Compared to last year, Sabah is still registering growth. In the first half of 2014, the overall number of arrivals increased by 5.5%. Domestic arrivals increased 6.9% and international arrivals grew 2.7% during the first six months of 2014.
Q) Broadly speaking, what strategy is Sabah Tourism pursuing to increase overall arrivals, and which outbound markets are being targeted and why?
Sabah will continue to work on increasing air accessibility within the Southeast Asian region. In view of the challenges that we are currently facing now, we are putting more efforts on promoting the domestic market, Brunei, Singapore, Japan and South Korea. We need to remain positive and continue develop smart-partnership.
Q) How important is foreign investment to growing the state tourism industry and what incentives are available to newcomers?
Sabah is one of the top states in terms of attracting foreign direct investments (FDI). Steady growth in tourism, political stability and security within the country gives confidence to foreign investment to invest in Sabah. For example, international hotel chains are good for visitors to identify standards of travelling here. For the past few decades however, this destination has been thriving on mostly stand alone and only a handful of brand names of hotels mainly concentrated in the West Coast.
The incentive provided by the under Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) is ‘Facilitation Fund under the Public Private Partnership Unit’ (Prime Minister’s Department). The government has introduced the Facilitation Fund under the Economic Stimulus Package in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) as an initiative to encourage implementation of private sector projects. Under the Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP), the Government has allocated a sum of MYR20 billion (US$6.1bn) for the Facilitation Fund.
Q) Can you give some examples of investors benefiting from these incentives and how have they improved the overall product offering?
Examples would be the development of new convention centres in Sabah, namely the Sabah International Convention Centre (operational in 2017) by Sabah Foundation Group and International Technology Commercial Centre.
Sabanilam Enterprise Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian developer had signed the Tripartite Facilitation Fund Agreement with the government and Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad in relation to the development of the International Technology & Commercial Centre (ITCC) located in Penampang, Sabah. The agreement is for the award of a facilitation fund of about MYR19.95 million being a “tipping point” grant by the government through Public Private Partnership Unit under the PM’s department.
Q) Nature is perhaps Sabah’s greatest tourism asset. How important is ecotourism to Sabah (in terms of percentage of arrivals), and how is it being improved and promoted? Can you identify any recent successes or developments in this field?
State agencies such as Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Parks and Sabah Forestry are directly involved for best management practices on natural attractions for mountain climbing, birding, diving etc. STB works closely with these agencies. Nature based tourism allows next generation to be conservation minded and conscious of their delicate environment as it has been gazzetted that 53% of land area in Sabah will be kept forested.
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