David Thien
YTL Hotels’ Gaya Island Resort is inspired by the gentle spirit of Sabah, the Malaysian Borneo. Tropical rainforest and mangroves surround the site. The luxury island resort faces the South China Sea, seven nautical miles off Kota Kinabalu.
The resort is still being built by the YTL Corporation Berhad on one secluded stretch of the island’s pristine shores with a picturesque view of the Sabah Foundation tower and Mount Kinabalu.
The resort is expected to be open for business in July 2012.
Gaya Island is the biggest of Sabah Parks’ protected islands off Kota Kinabalu amidst the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park conservation cluster of five islands.
Gaya Island Resort enjoys a prime location on the West coast of Sabah which boasts one of the best places to view the most beautiful sunsets in the world.
Some 200 Sabahans will be the employed by YTL Hotels’ Gaya Island Resort to welcome and care for the world’s rich and famous.
The 50-acre plus Gaya Island Resort offers 121 stand-alone hill and sea-front villas facing the southwest face of Mount Kinabalu with swimming pool, restaurants and is less than an hour’s combined limousine and yacht journey from the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.
Gaya Island Resort’s general manager Jeffrey Mong said YTL Hotels Gaya Island Resort offers much more unspoiled beauty with unique flora and fauna among YTL Hotels’ many luxury spa resorts across Asia and Europe.
A century ago, a local rebel chieftain, Mat Salleh, razed down the first colonial town outpost on Gaya Island to rid it of the settlement of tax collecting foreigners.
Now Gaya Island is again attracting wealthy foreigners and locals to experience its natural beauty with the island’s flora and fauna which includes the proboscis monkeys only found in Borneo and many species of birds including the not so easy to spot hornbill.
The adventurous can indulge in diving among the underwater corals, jungle trekking, marine excursion, water sport and flora and fauna exploration in the island’s rainforest with knowledgeable and experienced guides, resident naturalist and marine biologist.
YTL Hotels is the hospitality arm of YTL Corporation Berhad. Its clientele of high net worth visitors are expected to benefit the Sabah tourism industry players and retail businesses significantly if they care to explore what other experiences Sabah has to offer including the MM2H programme as they come to love Sabah more and more to return for repeated
visits.
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