Penampang: Active Twitter users are urging for more community and district leaders to jump on the tweeting bandwagon to engage with the people directly.Twitter user Kenny Thomas, 31, said the direct engagement would allow the people to convey ideas and problems to contribute to the State's development.
"Our current Federal Youth and Sports Minister KJ (Datuk Khairy Jamaludin) also engages with young people through the social media.
"In fact, he asked for ideas from the people to contribute to the industry.
For Sabah, we hope it's the same way," said Thomas.
Fellow Twitter user Tom Bonius, 27, agreed, saying: "Social media bridges the gap between leaders and people."
Doing just that, State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun spent some time with his Twitter followers at Babagon River, here, Saturday.
During the meet-up, Masidi exchanged stories and dined on freshly caught fish and some mee goreng with his Twitter followers. They all tweeted about it.
"Today myself and a few friends from Twitter are here at Sungai Babagon for a picnic to popularise tourism.
"We feel that those who have active Twitter accounts are those who could be influential enough to sell tourism products that need to be known by Malaysians," said Masidi.
Known as @MasidiM on Twitter and an active user himself, Masidi currently has over 3,100 followers.
Masidi said despite its beauty, Sungai Babagon is not well known among Malaysians and Sabahans.
"We hope that tweets and the meeting today will help market this place, especially among local tourists for recreational activities," he said.
"I hope that with this event, the community in Kota Kinabalu especially and people in Sabah and Malaysia will choose this place for them for recreational activities." he said.
Meanwhile, speaking on Visit Malaysia Year 2014 (VMY2014), Masidi said his ministry is focusing on countries that already have an interest in coming to Sabah.
The 'smart marketing strategy', said Masidi, is due to the limited marketing allocation provided by the Federal Government.
"Sabah is especially popular to those who love the environment...our strategy is focusing on countries that would be interested in coming to Sabah like China and Europe.
"Traditionally, they send the most tourists to Sabah. We hope that we can multiply these tourists for this year, for VMY2014 and the coming years," said Masidi.
