Dark Tourism Sabah team visiting one of the artifacts, an old well used by the Sulug island inhabitants to get their water supply back in the days.
KOTA KINABALU: Efforts are being made to promote Sulug Island, one of the five islands under Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park off Kota Kinabalu waters, as a hub or centre for dark tourism in Sabah.
Sabah Tourism Board (STB) board of directors member Roslinah Abd Hamid said this is because 70% of the historical artifacts already existed in the island, where Japanese soldiers in 1943 captured and killed the island inhabitants, believed to be part of the "Kinabalu guerrillas".
However, it would be up to Sabah Parks if they would approve this, as the island is under their purview, said Roslinah, who founded and is in charge of the "Dark Tourism Sabah" segment.
“I am pushing for Sulug Island development first as besides Mesilau, Kundasang (earthquake 2015 location), it has a strong history with ruins left behind.
“But there are limitations as the island is under Sabah Parks, and it depends on what they want the island’s direction to be, but we will try our best to pursue Sulug Island as a dark tourism hub or centre.
“We only need to improve the graveyard there, the old village settlement which was the battlefield (site), and add camps and (information) galleries; no need big structures or buildings,” she said, adding that other artifacts include human bones, and old well and the old trail used by villagers to escape.
She said this to The Star when asked about the developments after a three-day workshop was held last weekend on dark tourism, participated by local authorities like district officers, as well as representatives from Federal and state tourism agencies.
The workshop was held to correct misconceptions about dark tourism, which some have labelled as ghost tourism or linked it to paranormal events, when it was actually referring to Sabah destinations with a dark history where war, disasters or tragedies struck in the past.
She said participants responded well to this tourism niche and invited her to do site visits at their areas, as they do not have sufficient information on locations despite knowledge on historical events and needed assistance.
Roslinah said she, as a tourism player and tour operator herself, has seen dark tourism’s potential in Sabah since 2010.
“My team has actually done research on the historical sites across Sabah since 2010 on our own fund; it has always been in my list.
“I started doing tours for overseas clients in 2015 but back then in Sabah and Malaysia, it was seen as ‘spooky tours’,” she said, admitting that domestic visitors were less keen before because there was a lack of exposure to this type of tourism.
Besides Sulug Island and Mesilau substation, two other locations she saw have great potential in dark tourism are Kota Batu Brunei in Kinarut and Kinabalu Club at the state capital.
Kota Baru Brunei was a Brunei fort at the end of the 17th century, while the clubhouse previously known as The Jesselton Sports Club, was taken over by the Japanese Kempeitai as their headquarters in the 40s where interrogation and torture of civilians suspected to be against the Japanese, were reported to have taken place.
