Making Sabah known at Dubai Expo
Published on: Friday, December 17, 2021
KK city pic by thrillophilia.com.
Kota Kinabalu: A series of tourism presentations, activities, and performances will showcase Sabah as an enchanting destination during the Sabah Week trade and business programme to be held in the Malaysia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai from Dec 20-24.The event is expected to attract tour agencies, potential investors, business interests alike and international visitors as the state will also highlight investment potentials in flagship industrial parks, world-class meeting facilities and locally produced SME products.
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Sabah Week will be launched by Deputy Chief Minister III cum Industrial Development Minister, Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam.
Also in attendance will be Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Jafry Arifin, Sabah Ministry of Industrial Development (MID), Invest Sabah Berhad, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Sabah Tourism Board, Sabah Forestry Department, State Economic Planning Unit and Ministry of Finance.
Sabah is among the highest performing states in Malaysia for tourism, recording 4.19 million arrivals in 2019 with an estimated RM9.01 billion in tourism receipts. Pre-pandemic, the industry was also the third-highest contributor to the state economic sector and will continue to be the states’ focus under the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) development plan.
“Malaysia recorded about 170,000 visitors from West Asia in 2019 and the majority of these arrivals limit their travel in Peninsular Malaysia. Our plan is to continuously promote our destinations, to lure these visitors to experience Sabah’s best diving sites, islands and nature since they are already in the country,” said Noredah Othman, Chief Executive Officer of Sabah Tourism Board.
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The Expo 2020 Dubai is a historic chapter in the World Expo heritage as it is the very first time it is held in the Middle East and South Asia region.
“I believe there is a potential to encourage Middle East visitors to make Sabah their stopover destination when travelling to Malaysia. The Expo 2020 will make a great platform for us to do business networking and to introduce the varieties of hotel options available in Sabah,” said Hafizan Wong, Chairman of Malaysian Association Hotels (MAH) Sabah Chapter.
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Satta Chairman, Datuk Seri Winston Liaw said that the Expo 2020 is a great avenue to introduce Sabah to the whole world.
“We expect to attract 50,000 visitors from the Middle East and the rest of the world. Satta will also use this opportunity to further strengthen the relationship, communications and interactions between Sabah players to the world, thus propelling Sabah Tourism to greater heights,” he said.
The Malaysia Pavilion Amphitheatre will host a series of Enchanting Sabah showcases, cultural dance performances, trivia sessions as well as Sabah’s local crafts and cuisines presentation by Kristal Handal, and enterprises under the guidance of Sabah Department of Industry Development and Research (DIDR).
Meanwhile, trade visitors are welcomed to attend presentations by various Sabah industry participants. Among them are Sabah Tourism Board, Malaysian Association Hotels (Sabah Chapter), Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta), AIC Footprints Travels and Tours, Sabah Forestry, Invest Sabah, Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park and Palm Oil Industrial Cluster Sabah (POIC) at the pavilion’s Business Centre.
More information on programmes and participating companies from Sabah can be obtained from expo2020dubai.sabahtourism.com
Malaysia’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai is spearheaded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation with the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation as the implementing agency.
Malaysia is hosting 26 weekly thematic trade and business programmes throughout the six-month global expo, which will be led and supported by 21 ministries, 70 departments and agencies and five state governments.
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