style="text-transform: uppercase;">Kota Kinabalu: The June 5 earthquake and over 100 aftershocks in the State since then have left some RM100 million in damages, according to early estimates. State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said preliminary reports from the Public Works Department (PWD) on repairs to infrastructure and buildings have been put, conservatively, at RM95 million.

"The biggest damage has been to infrastructure and amenities like public institutions, mosques, churches and temples," he said, after attending a full briefing by the coordinating committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister.

"Damages were incurred by 38 schools as far as Nabawan and Kota Marudu," he said. The 5.9-magnitude quake on June 5 with its epicenter located near Mount Kinabalu caused 18 deaths that included children from Singapore who were climbing the mountain and guides. Kundasang and Ranau witnessed severe damage to properties and cracked buildings and roads.

It also forced the State Government to close the mountain to climbers at least until September in view of the continued aftershocks. On June 9, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced a RM10 million allocation to rehabilitate Mount Kinabalu Park.

Masidi was happy that the Federal Government acted fast as the amount was credited to the Sabah Parks fund within two weeks. "They want us to start repairs without delay and get the park fully operational soon as possible," he said.

Meanwhile, Masidi urged naysayers to think of the lives and economy they would disrupt by spreading rumours online.

While they could gather hundreds of likes on social media and become famous, they could make a negative impact on the livelihood of others, he said.

He was referring to negative following rumours circulating online threatening the State's tourism industry.

"When we churn out rubbish like that we are actually killing ourselves (economically).

"There are thousands of people whose livelihoods could be affected by such actions like the hotels, tourist agents and even vegetable sellers in Ranau," he said.

He recently stayed at one of the hotels in Ranau with his family and found out they were the only guests. He said there is a need to restore the image of Sabah and heed lessons from the earthquake incident, not relying entirely on the strong Mount Kinabalu brand to support the local tourism.

He said work also need to be made to push other spots like Kudat, Sandakan and Tawau since the mountain would be closed for months. Masidi said despite the challenges faced by the tourism industry the past two years, airlines are still showing interest to fly to Kota Kinabalu.

"I will be meeting the boss of China Eastern Airlines next week to finalise their plans to inaugurate a flight to Kota Kinabalu," he said.

Masidi said he recently visited Wuhan and found the interest of its citizens there to come to Sabah still high. On May 25, several Sabah and Chinese tour agents sealed a pact to bring in 70 direct charter flights from Wuhan, Changsa, Chengdu and Nanjing to the city from November.

Meanwhile, MATTA (Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel, Sabah Chapter) Chairman Robert Chong called on the State Government to put on hold the implementation of conservation fees until the tourism industry returns to normal.

"Our members' believe that the fee will push away tourists as tour prices will go up and that is something our members do not want at this current difficult time," he said.

According to Chong this year a total of 114 booths were taken by travel agents, tour operators, national tourism organisations, government agencies and travel related products and services organisations.

"The number increased 23 per cent compared to last year and the good news is, this year we had a total of 42 exhibitors compared to only 28 last year," he said.

Matta also handed a contribution of RM50,000 to the Sabah Parks Earthquake fund and RM7,500 each to the four mountain guides who died in the June 5 earthquake