Datuk Christina Liew (middle) presenting a promotional bag of Sabah souvenirs to Malaysia Airlines regional manager for Australia, New Zealand and South West Pacific, Giles Gilbert during a business meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah will roll out an action plan to lure Australians to visit the state, says State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew
She said this includes educating travel agents, recognising them as "prime movers".
Liew added that the education will be through online training and familiarisation trips to Sabah.
In a statement on Thursday (Aug 24), Liew said that she is currently leading a Sabah Tourism Board (STB) delegation to Australia.
Liew is accompanied by her Assistant Minister cum STB chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai, the Ministry's Permanent Secretary Datuk Mohd Yusrie Abdullah, STB chief executive officer Noredah Othman as well as Ministry and STB officials.
“This year, Sabah tourism is expanding to a wider audience in Australia with the "Feel Sabah - North Borneo" campaign, motivated by the growing number of Australians visiting Sabah after international borders had reopened," said Liew.
She added that STB statistics showed that there there were more than 7,000 Australian arrivals to Sabah in the period spanning from January to May 2023.
“We believe Sabah is a good destination for Australians as they love beaches and are raring to see our iconic wildlife, and sample food holidays, which Sabah offers plentifully,” she said.
During her visit to Melbourne, Liew also held a business meeting with Malaysia Airlines regional manager for Australia, New Zealand and South West Pacific Giles Gilbert on Tuesday (Aug 22).
“We will enhance the agents' knowledge so that they know our destination well and feel comfortable in introducing Sabah to clients," said Liew.
“We encourage them to become 'Sabah Specialist' agents and believe these efforts will enable the agents to help 'drive traffic' to our website for the consumers to buy Sabah's holiday packages,” she added.
Liew said the second strategy will be a free Borneo Side Trip (BST) offer to travellers with focus on the Australian market.
“This is primarily due to Malaysia Airlines' direct connectivity from Australia to Kuala Lumpur. Additionally, 'Sabah - North Borneo' has the most appealing tourism products to the Australian and New Zealand markets," Liew added.
She said the proposed complimentary side trip to Borneo is something that STB would further discuss with Malaysia Airlines to put the system in place.
"In order to stay competitive and achieve our year's target arrivals, we aim to kickstart these strategies within these two months," said Liew.
