Posts
 |
| Tourists rediscover and experience nature and wildlife at their best in Sabah. |
WITH its timber revenue declining as it focuses on reversing the trend
of deforestation, Sabah is turning to the tourism sector to displace
forestry as one of the main contributors to the economy.
The state recognises that protecting the forest is crucial and runs
parallel with efforts to promote tourism, considering that discerning
tourists will prefer places where environmental conservation is given
priority.
It was reported that the state government expected annual revenue from
timber production to be less than RM100 million a year over the next 20
years with timber production from natural forests expected to decline
during that period.
Between 1970 and 2000, the state depended heavily on timber revenue to
support development, which resulted in the reduction of the productive
capacity of forests.
Such dependence, coupled with past logging practices that were not
environmentally-friendly and compounded by forest fires, resulted in the
degradation of Sabah's forests and prompted the state government to
enforce strict management of the forests using proper methods, including
practices certified by international organisations.
All these efforts have helped placed Sabah in the global map with
international non-governmental organisations acknowledging the state's
seriousness in protecting its forests and conserve the environment.
This, in turn, has generated interests among foreign visitors, as evident from the increasing number of tourist arrivals.
This year, Sabah has set a target of 2.93 million visitors with an estimated receipt of RM5.2 billion.
The total arrival of visitors to Sabah for the first half of this year
was 1,372,525, an increase of 1.7 per cent compared with the same period
last year.
With this growth, Sabah should meet its target of tourist arrivals for
this year. For next year, Sabah is targeting the arrival of 3.1 million
visitors with an estimated receipt of RM5.5 billion.
To achieve this, the government is stepping up efforts to encourage
airline companies to operate more international flights to Sabah, be
they direct, scheduled chartered or chartered flights.
The state government's commitment is paying off with four new direct
flights to Sabah from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Osaka and Perth commencing
operations this month.
With the introduction of the new flights, Sabah now boasts of being
directly connected with 13 international cities, including Shenzen,
Manila, Jakarta, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Bandar Seri Begawan and
Tarakan.
These cities are serviced by 11 airlines, among them Malaysia Airlines,
AirAsia, Royal Brunei Airlines, Dragon Air, Silk Air, Cebu Pacific,
Aseana, Korean Air, Tiger Air and MASwings. The flights from the 13
cities offer more than 18,000 seats weekly.
The increasing number of flights operating to and from the Kota
Kinabalu International Airport have made and positioned the airport as
the busiest after the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
It is heartening that the success boils down to the fact that the
tourism industry in Sabah follows the direction of "Responsible
Conservation Tourism", a concept that allows tourists to re-discover and
experience nature and wildlife.
Known as "the land below the wind", Sabah has unique nature-tourism
qualities as the state is rich in biodiversity, contributing to Malaysia
being one of the 12 mega-biodiversity hot spots in the world.
As a rapidly developing state, Sabah is aware and concerned about
environmental protection and ensures that these aspects are taken into
consideration and integrated in development planning and exploitation of
natural resources in line with sustainable development principles.
Kudos to the state government led by chief minister Datuk Seri Musa
Aman for going all out to protect Sabah's forests and natural
environment because it is not only an asset to the tourism industry, it
also supports agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
Source: NST
