Sabah targets nearly 3 million tourist arrivals in 2012

The Sabah government is targeting 2.766 million local and foreign tourist arrivals said Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun.

In his winding-up speech at the state assembly sitting today, he said the ministry was expecting to derive an income of RM4.891 billion from tourism revenue.

He noted that Sabah had recorded an encouraging increase in tourist arrivals.

“In 2000, the number was only 774,475 but last year the figure reached 2,504,669. As at Sept this year, Sabah recorded 2,096,202 arrivals.

“The increase is attributed to the close cooperation between the public and private sector in promoting and developing tourism products and services in Sabah,” he said.

Masidi said the ministry has prepared an action plan and strategy to ensure the tourism sector would continue to expand.

In this regard, he said the Sabah Tourism Board would be allocated RM25 million for operations and tourism promotion activities in 2012.

– Bernama