style="text-transform: uppercase;">Kota Belud: Division Upko Chief, Ewon Benedick believes the district's tourism industry can be aggressively promoted with the appointment of Datuk Seri Salleh Tun Said Keruak as the new Minister of Multimedia and Communication."I'm sure Salleh who is Kota Belud Barisan Nasional chief and being the patron of the Kadamaian Tourism Association will help promote and give space for the Kota Belud tourism industry, especially in Kadamaian to appear more on national television.

"He has been encouraging the villagers to tap opportunity in the tourism sector, particularly the homestay programme as an additional source of income for the villagers," said Ewon.

Launching the Tanak Nabalu Homestay Festival 2015 in Kampung Lobong-Lobong, here last Saturday, Ewon who is Political Secretary to Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry also said that as a model of the 1Malaysia concept, Sabah must remain strong in unity and continue to be a must-visit site of the country.

"This unity is our advantage and an add-on to the natural wonder and beauty of this great State.

"This certainly will become an economic opportunity for tourism based service providers but we have high responsibility to maintain unity, peace and security as we all as villagers, are part of the whole ecosystem," he said.

Towards this end, he lauded the effort by the Tanak Nabalu Homestay operator, Duanis Mogirong who is also President of the Sabah Homestay Association to create programmes and packages that attract tourists to come to Sabah after the Mount Kinabalu earthquake in June.

"In this era of social media and Internet, you can do your part of promoting our country by sharing in your wall the success and great stories like how mountain guides helped rescue tourists during the earthquake, how culture can unite a race of different religious belief, how a traditional family life can unite increasingly progressive thinking members and how wonderful the relation of human is with nature here in Sabah," said Ewon.

"I have gone to many kampungs in Sabah and if promoted aggressively by its own community, it can be a window of opportunity for the villagers, just like what you have done here in Kampung Lobong-Lobong.

"Let us do what is right, this kampung deserves a lot because you work well and earn something for your effort through homestay festival. We are looking forward to see more activities of this kind in the future," he said.

Among the activities in the festival were the 21km and 15km Tanak Nabalu trail run challenge and launching of Olokis search-and-rescue team that attracted more than 100 local and international tourists to the village.

Meanwhile, Duanis said the Olokis search-and-rescue team consisted of youngsters from the kampung to be trained by relevant authority such as Fire and Rescue Department to prepare themselves for any eventuality.

The festival, he said, was an annual event and had seen an increase in participation.